Brothers in arms: Blood Brothers
by Loyal ODST
Summary: We follow Carnage from the end of the battle of Spiron, until who knows when will they survive the war or will they just be another number on the wall of lost lives fighting the genocidal Covenant empire's crusade against Humanity
1. Prologue

**Hello, internet, this is my first fan-fic, so please bare with me, This is the 'unofficially-official' sequel to Brothers in Arms by thearazona, Please be sure to go read the OG story if you haven't yet to catch up.**

 **Halo is the copyright of Bungie, 343 Industries or Microsoft, The Original Bia Characters are thearazona's (well minus one or two), but any new characters and further story are my own.**

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Prologue

April 15th, 2550

Aboard the UNSC Midsummer Night

Gunnery Sargent Jack Price

We watched the last civilian vessel go into slip space from the bridge of the Midsummer Night, and I swear less than a minute later an ONI prowler fell from slip space less than a kilometre from us, The Captain seemed a little unnerved from this arrival, but was pleased when we were relieved from our post and were free to go, The Captain insisted we were the last relieved ship to leave system. After the other ships left it was just The UNSC Constellation, the prowler and us, we bid the Constellation good luck and Jumped away, The Captain soon dismissed up and encouraged us to get some cryo-sleep, so we headed down that way.

"Hey Jack, " William said with a quiet tone, "I think I should get more training in, so I am going down to the gym"

"alright, after the others settle in I might come down and join you" I replied, He smiled warmly before changing direction mid-stride

"What is he planning on doing" Dmitri said sombrely

"putting a little more work in, I think he's taking the joining Carnage thing running with it"

when we entered the cryo-bay most of the 829th were already in their tubes, Folster stood against his, reading from a tablet "Morning Carnage" he said without looking up

"Folster" Dmitri said while approaching and opening his pod, the others made vague sounds of acknowledgement, before climbing in their own pods, I sat next to him and glance at what he was reading "That's a little old for you is it not?"

Folster 'mhmm'd' before continuing reading "you not tired Jack?"

"after all that I could sleep the whole trip, but I made an at odds promise William I'd train with him, it's" I said with a small stretch.

"The other William..." Folster said with a slight smirk

"Right, Sorry William it's just we normally call you by your last name..." I said trying to apologise

Folster laughed "I was only joking Jack, sometimes you're too serious"

"Yeah I know, but anyway, I'll catch you later, Ok?"

He 'Mhmm'd' again and I left towards the gym, when I got there William was tightening his arm bandage from the glancing shot he took just a few days ago, but when he saw me he jumped up, finishing off the knot he was tying, and said "glad you could join me" before he sauntered over to the weights, taking up a set of 30's "Jack, to be honest I don't know where to start in the training, all I know is I am ready to be worked into the ground, will you create my regime?" he said dropping the weights.

"Alright, If you're willing to be reworked from the ground up, we'll fix you," I said with a Crack of my Knuckles

-Fifteen Days of Later-

I had woken up Dmitri to help me with William's training, to my surprise William took quickly to the sleep when you can because I swear in the last fifteen days he's had about 60 hours of sleep, he may have snuck some naps in there but that's alright too, to boot Mandy has been in a low activity state, and the ship was running on a skeleton crew I think only a dozen people are up, making the ship feel awfully empty.

"Sir?" William asked looking at me head slightly tilted to one side

"Sorry, what was that" I replied

"I asked how was that," he said pointing out the display showing '13.125 seconds'

"That's good, better than over half the team, Connors got it down to 11.98 seconds, and Stein got 12.79 as his fastest"

William smiled, holding his knees "Good because you've had me running this 100 metres for the past 3 hours, can I have a drink and a break now"

I nodded, as Dmitri walked up and said "Not so fast Tadpole, One 800m less than 90 seconds, No retries if you don't get it, No break"

William's face Dropped "Can I get a drink first... Sir" He said standing back up, holding his hand out to him, Dmitri handed the bottle to him and he basically downed the half bottle, before moving to the starting position, the countdown started '3...2...1...GO' and he bolted off, we watched the seconds tick up, I swear he was running like he had a pack of hungry jackals on his six, and when he finished he dropped.

"89.71 seconds... You get to have your break, go get some well-deserved rest, after a shower OK" Dmitri said

we looked at William due to his lack of response to find him in amongst the mats "looks like we didn't have a choice even if we wanted to work him, he's not going anywhere" I said jokingly, to which Dmitri smiled

"You don't crack too many jokes," he said

"That's your job" I scoffed before laughing

"What are we gonna do with him," Dmitri said nodding his head at William

"I think he's ready for whatever the guys will do to him, I say we put him in his tube, and see where we end up, Mandy still won't tell me where we are going, so only time will tell" I said moving to William "Grab his legs, unless you want to carry him"

Dmitri grabbed William's legs, and we lifted him to the cryo-bay and got him in his tube with little effort then we climbed into our own tubes and went to sleep

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 **Thank you for reading, Please leave a review, tell me how it went I appreciate any input, No planned date for chapter one but, it's on it's way.**

 **Semper Fi,**

 **LoyalODST a.k.a William**


	2. Ch1 Reunion Tour

**Thanks everyone for your input and what-not, AN at the end, Please remember that Halo is copyright of Bungie, and that the Original Carnage members are Thearizona's**

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Chapter 1: Reunion tour

June 13th, 2050

UNSC Middsummer Night's Cryo-bay

Gunnery Sargent Jack Price

I was awoken to the warm wash of air as my cryotubes door opened, I proceeded to take the minute long 'ritual' of clearing my lungs of the anti-freeze gel when I was finished I clambered over to my PT gear I soon heard The ship's AI Mandy's voice ring out

"Good evening, Jack, The others will be awake in a few moments" she said warmly, followed by the hisses of the other tubes opening up

"Where are we, Reach?" I asked inquisitively, while I stretched

"We are in the Sol system, Jack, the captain said something about R&R... and I think I heard you talking about getting William through the sprint ODST course"

A few questions rang out of the men getting dressed, I picked out Anders voice from the pack "Sprint course. Sir?"

"The Sprint is a boot camp of sorts, it's run by some ODST's that have made it from before the war, they proposed the service to retrain some of the older units in modern tactics, and keep off duty ODST's in tip top shape for their missions to come, and the 'fun' thing is they claim to train anyone in three days tops... so I called some favors and got William into the next class we could squeeze him into"

Mandy cut in "we will be passing Jupiter and mars on the way to earth if McFee or you, Jack want to visit home, also I reported in to the Sprint team, they will fit William in when we arrive"

McFee scoffed "I don't really think my family would want to see me, we weren't on best terms anyways... I'll send them a video message on the way by if it makes you feel better"

I spoke after "I have nothing or no one to visit on Mars, so I don't see a point"

William followed in turn "Thanks Mandy" before stretching into a yawn

"Carnage to bridge – Carnage to the bridge" The Captains voice echoed

"you heard the Captain, Get moving", Dmitri said with a slight sternness to his voice

The squad fell out, in two by two we jogged to the bridge, and when we arrived we were met by the darkened viewports, and the Captain chatting with the navigation officer

"Come see this" the Captain said "Mandy, the windows" the viewports brightened up, showing the inner Sol system.

Anders took a few steps forwards to look at the view

"Saturn's back over there" William said looking out the side port

"and over here we have Jupiter followed by Mars, then Earth, Venus and Mercury" Davis said pointing them all out

"Look at how blue Earth is from here!" Anders said with a hint of excitement

Dmitri looked to William "You were born on Earth too if I recall"

William looked towards us "yeah" he responded, his face turned a little sour, and he went back to looking out the port, I pulled him away from the others

"It's still bugging you, I can tell" I said looking into his eyes

He shook off my hands "of course it is, we were close... Closer than my real brothers were, expecially after the last time we spoke" He said breathing deeply

"Don't be so hard on yourself, if you could have done anything, you would have" I said trying to reassure him.

"Look at me I'm just a grunt, My older brother designs ships, and my youngest brother works with the Robotics core, and the other one is an..."

"Don't do that... you may be a foot soldier, but that proves that you have more courage and will then they could ever hope to have, and all of us has lost someone, we know this kind of hurt too" I told him

"I guess you're right" He said with a crooked smile

"and you get to show your new brothers your home" I pulled him back to the group, who were still planet gazing

"If you look hard you can see Luna, Earths moon" William said, acting like nothing had happened

Foster walked up to me "Poor kid" he said

"he's no kid, he's 35" I shot back

"36!" he called back to us, to our surprise

"We better go join them" Foster said with a smile on his face

"We better" I said promptly as I turned to rejoin the group

- _An hour later, In the sim room_ -

William and Connors were locked in a sword clash, they then parted with a shove, and William took a few steps back brushing the beads of sweat from his brow, before twirling the wooden blade, He then took his stance and signalled for Connors to continue his assault, the blades 'clacked' with each contact. William looked like he was on the back foot quite a few times, but turned the fight in almost every clash, the duel seemed to slow time with the rhythmic 'clacks' of the swords but ended with a quick burst of swings Connors' arms were raised for a strong strike and William's blade pressed up against Connors Stomach.

"William is victorious" Mandy said in a calm tone

William Shook Connors hand "Thanks for sparing, I needed that"

"No worries, I really thought I was about to win" He Smiled

"Good match, Where you learn to do that" I asked William as he stretched

"Me and my brothers always fought, so we made a game of it, Never was the best" he said before mouthing to me 'I was the best'

"good to see that some of that kid stuck through until now" I stated looking over his shoulder

on the other side of the room Connors was Joking with McFee "I only lost because I couldn't get close to him- You know that to be the truth"

McFee shrugged "Maybe, It would be a treat to watch someone else spar for a change, Don't get me wrong its good practice its just I'm sick of being flipped all the time" His face turned to a smile, and the pair laughed.

"Hey Jack, I'm going to call it a little early" William said on way past

"Tired?" I asked him

"Nah, Just need a bit of solo time" He responded, I shot him a glance "Not anything like that, just wanted to write in my journal" He followed through

"you're good to go" I said turning back to the squad

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Moments later

Sargent William Goodwin

I paced out of the room, taking a right turn my steps hastily increasing with speed, and I avoided the halls with others in them, my fast pace defiantly drew attention to me, but I slid off the silent judgment, before entering into Carnage's private bunk room, I leaned against the back wall and slid to the floor, head in my hands.

I sat there for what seemed like forever, contemplating my past, who I've lost, falling into the pit of nothingness I've faced before, clambering back to my feet, I grabbed my personal data-pad, and attached it to one of the bunk frames, I turned on a lantern and hung it from the adjacent bunk, and finally I sighed loudly

"Record this" I said clearly

"Ready to record- In 3, 2..." the device showed a countdown accompanied with a digital voice

"So, yeah" I started sombrely "Chris, Theodore, Jay... I want to apologize for everything I've ever said that may have hurt you" I paused before a little sad laugh "the last time we saw each other was at _the funeral_ , and I said some shitty things, I never meant any of it, but He was our father, and we all acted like he was a stranger, I think part of all of us died that day, but we didn't do our best for his memory, and I wanted to make amends, two of you lucky bastards get to chill at home- making the tech we use on the field and chunks of metal we ride on, So I'm thankful for that... also I'll be visiting home in a few days, hopefully I'll get to catch up... Oh and Jay, Congrats on getting a team of your own, I'm proud of you- even if you're the biggest asshole I've ever met, Anyways, I love you guys, I've lost a lot out here, but I think I found something I won't ever loose, a reason to keep fighting; I'm not dying for a planet, a nation or a person, but I will lay down my life for our planets, our nations, our people, our right to live in this universe too. I think _they_ would have liked the concept, I know Carnage believes so."

The door to the bunk room opens with a small mechanical noise and Two figures walked in

"Damn straight" Jacks voice rang out

"Wouldn't have it any other way" Dmitri followed

"Anyways, that's my queue to wrap this up, Love you guys, Bye... Stop Recording" I said in a clear voice

"Confirmed" The data-pad chirped stopping its program

I hopped up "Sirs"  
Dmitri let out a chuckle "Jack had something to tell you, I'm just here to get away from the others, Connors is being cocky again and I didn't want to clean his clock"

"Burnish or polish?" I quipped back, which Dmitri gave me a raised eyebrow, to which I was going to explain but stopped myself "never mind" I said with a smile

"To the topic of why we are here- We are gaining another new member, whom you might know, Her file said you worked together at one point" Jack said in an open ended manner

"Sir, that doesn't help me, I've worked with many women" I replied, trying to think of who it could be

"That's the point, it should make you feel better that its someone you know, and have a professional history with" he quipped back

"I guess that's reasonable to assume. Alright, when are they getting here" I asked

"before we leave system" he replied coolly

I nod, before sending the message on my data-pad, and turning off the lantern "I should get some sleep before we get to mars- I have someone to visit when we get there"

"Its still two days away, and don't forget you still have to do the sprint" Jack followed my statement

"Oh, I know, but knowing my brother, I'm only going to have a limited window to see him, and he's going to knock the wind out of my sails, so I have to get ready mentally"

"Makes sense... I think" Jack said before turning to leave "going to check on the others, Sleep tight"

Dmitri was already asleep, "yup" I responded, crawling into my bunk

'Hopes to good fortune' I think to myself before I drifted off to sleep

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 **First off; I am so sorry that this took so long to get out, some personal problems came up, and they take prescience to my projects. Secondly; I will be working on the next chapter shortly so it shouldn't be almost two months until the next chapter. Thirdly; Input- Any and all types are welcome.**

 **Semper Fi,**

 **LoyalODST a.k.a William**


	3. Ch2 The Red Planet

**Thank you, everyone for the reviews (you know who you are), as standard AN at the end, Bungie owns the copyright of Halo, and Thearizona is the creator most of the main cast**

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Chapter 2: The Red Planet

June 15th, 2050

On board the UNSC Middsummer Night

Sargent William Goodwin

The Martian sunrise's hazy blue hue shimmered as Sol broke over Mars's horizon, the viewport darkened to counter the sudden bright light.

"Beautiful ain't it" I said before taking a big sip of my coffee

"One of many" Jack said in a slightly sombre tone, I could only think of how many alien sunrises he's seen for the first or even last time.

"It's still _Home_ right?" I ask, setting down my mug and turning to him

Jack's sigh said a lot but left much unsaid

"I didn-" I started before being cut off

"Don't" he waved his hand in dismissal "but Yes, this was and is my home, I- It doesn't feel like home since..."His voice slowed and his face contorted

"I'm sorry I brought back the memories of what happened" I followed what I said with a soft sigh "I bet they were good people" I continued before downing the rest of my mug and bringing my gaze back out to the red planet

A minute or so later Dmitri sat down at the table with a clatter "What I miss?"

I gave him a sad glance and I guess he put the pieces together "Oh, I see" He said before turning to his meal

The cafeteria had a few quiet conversations going on, nothing that I wanted to hear or know about so I stood up "I have to get ready for my trip to the surface, Thanks again Jack for the early wake up, it's these simple things that make the hardships less of a hassle" and I walked off towards the bunk room.

When I got there it was empty, a slight sigh of relief left my lips as I walked to my locker and opened it, brushed aside my PT gear and grabbed out my spare set of fatigues and headed off to the ship's showers, I breezed through my shower and quickly got myself dressed, put my pins into my cap and slapped it on, I once over-ed myself in the mirror maybe one too many times, before heading off to the hangar.

I walked into the metallic smelling chamber and joined the others that had gathered at the two pelicans going planet-side today, I leaned up against some crates, watching more people arrive and talking about what they planned to do while they were down there, most were visiting family or friends, the rest just really wanted off the ship, it was another few minutes before the pilots arrived and let us aboard the pelicans, and even gave us a quick rundown of the time we had on the surface.

"When you get to the surface you only get 6 hours until the first ship leaves, 7 for the second, if you're not on them, its not going to be a fun time explaining that to the brass" Our pilot said before making sure everyone was secured, 'no need for unnecessary risks during a civilian op' was his response for the precautions, maybe he made sure we were tied down for the joy-ride he had planned for us, as we left the hangar we accelerated quickly pushing all of us towards the back of the Pelican, I watched the ship get smaller as we left it.  
"Time for a little trick" the Co-Pilot said with glee

The ship rolled to the starboard, and the star field turned into a blur, I could feel the momentum of the turn in my restraints 'oh good I got the 'fun' Pilots' I thought sarcastically to myself, and to my surprise Mandy's voice rang in the ship "I get you're having fun and all but focus on your task, Please"

The spin slowed to a stop "Yes, ma'am" The Pilot said with what felt like a happy tone.

A few minutes passed before we hit the atmosphere, and shortly after we had landed at a Landing pad, The pilots bid us farewell and the group dispersed, I jogged over to a Civilian Warthog with the words 'UNSC transport' written on the side, and gave a quick look around at the unusual modification, a cabin where the LAAG would normally be, the access to it from the passenger side door, the fact it had doors was the real surprise to me, the sudden voice behind me made me jump a little "Where you headed... Sargent"

When I spun around there was a corporal and 3 other Marines in fatigues "Reyes-McLees Shipyards, More specifically R&D"

"You're in luck I'll be on that side of town with this crew, I'll bring you there after I get them where the need to go, 'Kay" He said before Hopping up into driver's seat, I quickly jumped up into the cabin and slipped into a seat, and with that we were off.

The ride was smooth and uneventful, I passed the time by looking at the Architecture and green pieces that were present throughout the city, I snapped to reality when the others got out, and the ride continued, and after about another 10 minutes we arrived at the gates to the complex, and I hopped out, thanked the driver and walked up to the guard, he stopped me and he said sternly "Identification"

"Here" I passed him my ID card, and he checked it thoroughly.

"Purpose of visit?" his voice unwavering from its tone

"To see my brother, He has me pencilled in his busy schedule-" I Started before he cut me off

"I don't need a sap story- You're cleared for entry, check in at the offices, They'll point you in the right direction" He said before opening the gate.

I pass through the gate and briskly walked to the Main office, and sauntered up to the main desk and looked to the two women; one was clad in a suit jacket the other was in a Blouse.

"Excuse me, Ma'am" I said to get their attention

"Yes. How can I help you?" She asked

"uh, Yes, Christian Goodwin has me signed under reservation for a visit" I Started

"Name?" She cut me off

"William" I replied

"Full name..."

"William Arthur Goodwin-"

"Date of birth"

"How- March 29th, 2514"

"Yes, He has you earmarked in for a meeting in... about an hour"

"Could I see him now?"

"He's in his office~" She rolled her chair back towards another bank of computers "~I'll ring him"

"Thank you" I said, watching the keystrokes, I felt the line go through

"Yes?" I could hear his voice say

"Your brother is here- Early too"

"Oh, Yea, Send him up will you?" then the line clicked off

she rolled back over to her station and wrote up a number, and a rough guideline on how to get to it "here you go, Don't get lost, and stay out of trouble"

"Thanks, I'll do my best" I quipped as I turned and left the room, and continued on a brisk pace.

I walked up to the door, my body felt cold, I felt more nervous now than I had in the past 16 years, I took a deep breath and entered the room, to my surprise it was more like a workshop than an office, sure there was a desk and a few old filing cabinets, but there was a lot of tools and a wire frame of the fuselage of a Pelican dropship, a holographic map showed the metal skin of the ship and the extensive redesign, I tried to deconstruct what I was looking at; 'a dorsal 40mm cannon, two 30mm Auto-cannons out of the 'nose' of the ship, four Integrated Turret emplacements in the main hull, heavily redesigned wings and nacelles'

"What am I looking at?" I asked into the room

"One of the three Pelican designs I'm working on. It's more of a pet project instead of a funded decision" the voice I knew so well answered, and when he walked out of a side room, it brought a smile to my face.

"Christian, it's good to see you" I said happily before walking over and grabbing him in a hug

"Come, grab a seat" he said after the hug ended, and he started towards his desk, so I followed him and pulled up a seat

"Rhea, put on something soft and slow" Christian announced

"Yes sir" A calm, warm female voice soothingly said, an instant later some soft classical music started

"You have your own AI?" I asked inquisitively

"She's assigned to me for a while, but no, she's not mine" He replied

"To be more precise, until further notice, I am assigned to him, and his team while they are developing-" Christian cut her off

"RHEA!" He shouted

"Oh right, that part's classified, sorry sir" She said in an apologetic tone

"Don't be mad at her, I understand, the Suits like their secrets safe, I know we would want ours safe" I said looking him in the eyes

"I didn't mean to sound so hostile about it, it's just a lingering part of her host's personality coming through" He gave me a look which I couldn't place the emotion on

I glanced at my watch '15:31' it read, I thought to myself 'already an hour and a half on the surface'

"I'll go now" Rhea said quietly and her hologram winked out, and replaced itself with a globe of Earth

I leant onto my elbows "What do you do for fun these days?" I asked with an eyebrow crooked

"When I'm not buried in work? Metalworking and more 'work', why, what do you do?" He answered and asked me

I pulled up my sleeves "Besides the grunt work, war games and PT, mostly helping others with their hobbies, the last thing I did for myself was a sword fight with one of my squad-mates"

"You still do that? Good to see a little bit of the kid in you still" He joked

"I would still beat you old timer" I joked back

"Oh yeah?" he stated getting up from his desk, and walking into the back room, he returned with two old and battered wooden swords

"Well colour me purple, you still have them" I jumped up to met him in the clear part of the workshop and he slid me a sword

"Rhea, Play something from the playlist 'Highlands' "

"Yes sir" She replied quickly, and not an instant later did the sound of bagpipes and battle drums pulse into the room

"Oooo a classic" I said referring to the song

"Many battles have been fought with this one playing" He said spinning his blade

I started my approach and tapped blades, signalling the start of the duel, which ended in a second; My blade rested at his neck, his at my ribs so we withdrew and prepped again.

"Nice swing, you remembered the rules of the duel" I said with a smile

"Duh, who could forget your rules" He teased

We had another few dozen of matches, making us both very tired, we even tied on 'points' so we called off the duel

"wanna grab something to eat before I have to head back to the ship" I raised my arm and stretched it out

"well we killed 40 minutes, so yeah it's not a bad idea, I know a great sit in dinner downtown" He said snatching up his keys

"sounds good" I said following him out the door

"Rhea, lock up will you" Christian said before closing the door with a metallic click

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 **Hey guys look A new chapter, and it didn't even take me a month, Hurray! I'll start on the next chapter right away so I can keep up this pace, Please feel free to leave a review or send me a PM, any input is** **very** **much appreciated and as always,**

 **Semper Fi,  
LoyalODST a.k.a William**


	4. Ch3 The Brawl

**First off, this chapter is a little weird and might break the flow a little bit.**  
 **Secondly, It's longer than most if not all of my other chapters (that's good right?)**  
 **Thirdly, AN and other Classy stuff at the bottom**  
 **Microsoft holds copyright of the Halo franchise, and TheArizona owns most of the OC's in Carnage**

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The Brawl and Home at last

June 16th, 2550

UNSC Midsummer Night

Sargent William Goodwin

I was laying in my bunk after I got back from the surface trip to Mars, it was dark and quiet. All the members of carnage were sleeping except for me, my mind was way too busy to fall asleep, so a got to my feet and walked into the dimly lit hall, the dull yellow lights were 'dimmed', keeping the light low to create pseudo 'day/night cycle' aboard the ship, helping us keep our circadian rhythm working properly, as I walked the halls I spoke into the vast emptiness

"Mandy, you around?"

"Primary functions are in down time," Her warm voice said softly

"could you play music in my local area, and stick around," I said whilst turning a corner

"Sure- Like what" she inquired

My step slowed "Play something from the 'fantasy' section of my files"

A moment of silence passed, and then a smooth song that sounded like it would be played in a tavern of old

I sighed slightly "thanks- How many others are awake right now?"

"13" Mandy's voice sounded distant, and for a few minutes, I was alone with my music walking towards the gym, as I turned into the gyms hall I could hear the sounds of someone lifting weights, a steady _clink, clink, clink._ I pushed aside my thoughts and entered the gym to my surprise it was Major Garcia who was working on the weights, and by the amount of sweat covered him, he'd been at it for well over an hour, and he looked pissed.

"Pause playlist," I said just after I entered the room, and the playlist stopped playing, I started to walk past Garcia, and without thought, I said "Major" as I passed him

He set the bar down with a loud _Clunk,_ "Not good enough for ONI, huh, got to one up the average guy"

I stopped "Excuse me, sir" I inquired

It sounded like I had personally gone out of my way to hurt him "Your Neural interface; it's a prototype, a flawed piece of tech that should've never seen the light of day- you're nothing but a _Testbed_ "

I reached up and grasped at my lace, the slightly larger module was built to attempt to fit an AI chip into the standard soldiers' regular package, feeling at the open cavity where a chip once sat the feeling brought my exploration to a halt.

"And Major, what's your point," I said without turning towards him

"If the Lace is still in you, ONI doesn't know you're alive- or at least the you, you once were, and its AI, where is it?" He said angrily

"Destroyed, following Cole's protocol, preventing the covenant from finding earth and any other colony the AI has logged, and I've never been anyone but myself, My lace is mine and they haven't removed it because I haven't let them yet," I said sombrely

"You have a lot of talk for such a small man, and you think; Jack, Foster, and Davis have your back, but they don't. Not now not ever" he said as throwing a punch, which collided square into my right shoulder and knocked me off my feet.

To his surprise I stood back up "you think you can actually hurt me?" I asked, my voice sounded horse "Mandy, Call the MP's, This fight might kill one of us..." my voice trailed off as I took a fighting stance.

The lights in the hall went from a dull yellow to a flashing red "A fight has broken out in the gymnasium, Repeat Military police to the gymnasium paralyze paint authorized"

I spoke to Garcia "If you want me dead- come get me" I backed away towards the spring ring

Garcia followed me, his face gave me the impression of the thoughts I knew that he was thinking, Spikes of pain rolled through my shoulder and neck 'I only need to last a few minutes... then it's over' in the distance footsteps grew louder, and I quickly braced for Garcia's incoming punch, the blow nearly knocked me off of my feet.

'Jack is faster, Dmitri is stronger, I'm smarter, that means anything he has, I've seen or felt worse, I can take it until the others get here' I thought to myself before taking another hit, this one was much less powerful, that's when I noticed the three figures inside the gym; 2 MP's with rifles raised, and Jack, looking at us with a stonewall look, his arm extended out, we locked eyes and I gave him a subtle nod.

"Fire!" He shouted as he dropped his arm, and the pelting began, the first round felt like a paintball and it stung but that was about it, the second compounded from the first, and felt unbearable, the next three shots knocked me off my footing, and the following four gave more than enough force to push me over, and the last one must have knocked the wind out of me because when we hit the ground I was already on my way out, Garcia took well over two dozen rounds before he fell, I could hear the voices fade and the world go dark, then...

 _-An unknown amount of time later-_

My eyes shot open from the sudden resurgence of pain in my body, this couldn't have been the paint, its effects are short-lived, and I've been shot at by these things before, but this was still around and stung worse than the last time.

"he's waking up, good things the med-techs gave him that once over, that blow he took could have shattered his shoulder bone, that would be hard to fix, and rehabilitate to" A voice I didn't know said

I Blurted out "Did we get to Earth yet, how long have I been out"

"No, and it's only been about 72 hours, including the time you were on ice" he responded

"Frozen?" I asked still trying to move

"Yeah they put you on ice letting your treatment work you over before you woke up, because boy, the Major did a number on you" he explained

"Oh good, What number, I hope it's 7," I said sarcastically

"If your team is anything to go by, you really like seeing space, we're still a few days out yet, so that will give you plenty of time to recover, and talk to the MP's and the Captain," He said basically ignoring my attempt at a joke

"yeah, I guess that whole thing was Illegal wasn't it?" I tried rolling over and fell back because of a stab of pain in my back

"A little, Oh right, one second" he left with a puff, and returned with the entirety of Carnage "If he's able to joke, he's able to talk, hit him with all your questions"

Connors spoke up "How was it" His stupid smile made me laugh

"awful, he hits like a freight train," I said with the end of my laugh

Both Dmitri and Jack looked very unimpressed with both of us

"Why?" Jack's voice set the tone to a very strict level

"The fight? He wanted to hurt me, because of my special Neural lace is my guess" I tried not to crack a joke or anything

"Your lace shouldn't have led to a fight, and not one that might have killed you" His voice bellowed

"I- Sir, To be blunt he has an issue with ONI not me," I said my voice cracked and raised in pitch, and I coughed to fix it

"You're so close to fully being on the team and you nearly get yourself killed fighting the marine who can't stay to himself!"

"Sir- I" He Cut me off

"NO, Sir Nothing, dear Christ if I had half the mind to shoot you-" I cut him off

"I'd be glad you did it, sir..." my whole being drooped "Then I'd stop being a problem, and being nearly killed all the time and living with this guilt"

Dmitri spoke out "what guilt" his face changed from harsh to 'I did not mean to say that' in a millisecond

"457 people... 457 people died under my command or because I didn't act fast enough to save them~ _**THAT GUILT**_ _Staff Sargent_ " I nearly shouted

The air felt stagnant, I felt that I couldn't breathe, I was expecting to be shouted at, but was surprised to have the whole team, minus Jack and Dmitri closed in and grappled me in a hug

"Hey. Just, we're here for you, we won't give up on you for things that make you, you and we are willing to take part of your burden, and we won't take 'no' for an answer" Connors' voice sounded reassuring

"Damn straight," Jack said it was surprisingly warming considering his previous tone

The team helped me to my feet, and between two of them we started towards the bunk room

"Uh~ you can't leave yet," The officer said giving us a look

suddenly Mandy popped up on a console "Captain say's they're clear, it's not like the can get off ship anyways, or get into any more fights... RIGHT" she said with a lot of emphasis on the last word

"Right, of course, plus I don't think I can start anything in this condition," I said with a smile

"F-fine, you're clear, you can leave," the man said as McFee and Connors continued to help me to the bunk room

-The following day-

"Carnage to the bridge, Repeat Carnage to the bridge" Mandy's voice rang into our bunk room

"You heard the Woman, double time" Jack said jumping to his feet, and stood at the door, followed by McFee and Connors in a two wide column then me between and just behind them, then Stein and Anders on my rear flanks and Dmitri behind them, the pace was brisk and we got to the bridge in no time, but just before we entered the captain, Foster, the Leader of the MP Unit on board 2ndLt. Sandra Moore and two of her MP's stopped us.

"Goodwin, With us," Moore said with a forceful tone

I nodded and left my place in line and followed them into a room, that held a holographic table in the middle with three chairs on one side and one on the other, the MP's filed to the sides of the door, and the others sat in the chairs on their side of the table, I approached mine, but hesitated at the chair.

"Be seated" Moore's said with a harshly, So I sat.

The holographic table lit up, It showed the fight in a way I couldn't from inside of it.

Davis spoke, "What happened in there?"

"In the fight or in my head sir?" I asked, which made Moore scowl

"Let's start with in your head, How'd it start?" He continued

"I didn't want to fight, sir, things just got out of hand way to fast" I stated "At first I thought he was just wanting to kill my moral for getting 'special' treatments, and my rapid increase of skill" I paused "and... by the time I knew I couldn't get out without violence I was already on the ground, then a switch kinda just flipped, and I no longer cared about not getting hurt, but about retaliating, just surviving"

Moore gave me a look of confusion "So, you let him get under your skin and made you stop thinking logically"

"No Ma'am~" I repealed

"Then why challenge Garcia to a death match, you know he wouldn't not take the offer" Foster cut in

the holographic table quoted me "If you want me dead-" it looped over 'dead' a few times

I raised a finger with a finger whilst raising my hand, but dropped it back to the table "Sir, I- Stopped thinking, I had to be in my head reliving that... _Nightmare_ "

"Night-" Moore Started but was cut off by Davis

"Sargasso" He spoke "Humanity lost, 87% Human ground force casualties, yes I remember it"

"You were there Captain?" I asked

"I was a Lieutenant at the time but yes, I was there, and was part of the last group of ships to retreat"

"We should focus on the task at hand Captain" Moore cut in

"Right, of course, William how do you think we should handle your case?"

"Sir?" Both I and Moore asked in tandem

"Wait you're serious" Foster looked over at Davis

He nodded and looked me in the eyes "Son?"

"I-uh, Think that following procedures set by law would be appropriate," I said looking at the three

"That would be a lot of brig time, and a warrant for demotion, with little to no special privileges, like; stargazing or attending activities off of the ship," He said hinting to my plans of the near future

"I see sir, I would like to request a temporary lapse in punishment, and for said punishment, I think a vote between you three should suffice"

"Moore any issues with that?" Davis said

"I've already said his case should be handled as any other would, but I think his idea of a vote would work- Considering his Sprint test, and His meeting with Family. I mean I'm not that cold-hearted as to pull this out of his grasp" She said pulling on her cap

"Foster?"

"Hell, Give him a slap on the wrists and be done with it, Garcia's an asshole plain and simple, but he knows when to be done with things," Foster said looking at the pair

"Oh really?" Davis said looking back at him

"The sprints going to take a lot out of him, then His new teammate will too if I know her as well as I think I do, and Knowing their history it might turn into its own little 'slug fest', but that's just my opinion"

Davis stood up "William, with me, we're going to the bridge"

I got up "Sir?" I asked

"No questions just walk" he retorted

He lead me into the bridge and I slowed, The Earth sat in the distance, both her and Luna were half illuminated, and I could see Europe, it was partially clouded over.

"Captain, do you think what happened could have been avoided?"

He gave me a look, and looked back out to the Earth "Hmmm, Part of me wants to say yes, but I'm going to say no"

"I also have to thank you for not, you know, gutting me for this"

"Trust me, I watched that video since I was given it, I don't blame you for any of it, I could see the moment where 'the switch' was flipped, Jack saw it too and he knows you better and has been helping you since your loss back on Spiron... I can't punish someone for grievance"

"Thank you, again. About how long do you think we'll be until we get there" I said pointing my chin at the Earth

"We're still a day out, don't worry though you're plans are still set, and all that" He responded

"that's good sir" I let out a sigh and a smile came to my face "It's good to be home"

I continued to watch the team poke fun at the silly ins and outs of our homeworld, but at this point, it didn't bother me, I was just so happy to be bac

* * *

 **Welcome to the AN; Hey guys, hope the chapter didn't flow, its been a weird month for me, But anyways Please feel free to give a review, any and all feedback is good, Did you catch the reference in the chapter feel free to put a** Nose goes in **the review ;) (always thought it was nose ghost but apparently not, strange right?)**

 **As usual, the next chapter is coming down the pipe and should be posted on or in the days following the 28** **th** **of next month (it's become habit to get them done by then)**

 **Oh! I almost forgot We've almost reached 100 views (This is big for me) and surprisingly from a large variety of nations, I'm glad to see people reading my stuff**

 **For anyone wondering about the 'paralyze paint' it wouldn't be hard to think that humanity has an ammunition for subduing a person non-lethally, and I took inspiration from the Tactical Training Rounds (TTR's) from Halo cannon, the Lock Down Paint from Red vs Blue (season nine) and Tasers of the modern era**

 **As always,**

 **Semper Fi**

 **LoyalODST Aka William**


	5. Ch4 The Sprint

**Welcome back to Brothers in Arms: Blood Brothers, Please remember that Microsoft holds copyright of the Halo franchise, and TheArizona owns most of the OC's in Carnage, AN at the end, And with that, we jump into the chapter**

* * *

Sprint and the red headed vixen

June 21st, 2550

In Low Earth Orbit on board the UNSC Midsummer Night

Sargent William Goodwin

I sat near the end of my bunk in my PT gear, ready for my ride to the Sprint, I would say I was nervous but was ready to put my aching body to the test, ready to push my limits.

"You in there, you haven't moved in twenty minutes, " Jack asked extending his hand to help me up, so I took it clambering to my feet and gave him a small nod

"Yeah, just psyching myself up," I said walking toward the door

Mandy came through into the room, her voice soft and sweet "William, The Sprint's pick up is here, please make your way to the hangar... Good luck Sargent"

"Thank, Mandy, tell them I'm on my way," I said slapping my cap onto my head and starting toward the hangar

\- Fifteen minutes later on route to the orbital platform which the sprint takes place on -

"One minute 'til docking, repeat one minute until docking," The Co-pilot said into the nearly empty cabin

I looked around to the 'recruiter' and the other trainee they had picked up before me, and out to the rear of the craft "What exactly do we do during the sprint?" I asked inquisitively

The 'recruiter' looked to me and said "get you up to speed, make sure you meet the mettle and go through some drop tests, the last thing we do is an actual drop, followed by some ground-based activities"

The ship slowed and docked into its berth, we dismounted and the 'recruiter' lead us to the Barracks "This is where you'll sleep for the time you are here, Simple rules; Don't fuck around, and No noise after 20:00." He turned "first class is in 2 hours"

"What do we do until then?" I blurted out

"take a shower, hit the gym, take a nap for all I care, just don't be late" he huffed

I looked into the room, all eyes were on me, most of the bunks were filled, so I brought my arms up in front of me and clasped them together "Um, free bunks?"

A Man stood up, his muscular form said a lot, his Blond hair spiked at the front, his gaze was cold "So you're the 'special case', thinking you can just show up in the middle of the program and fit in"

"I aim to please, " I said brushing off his comment "but seriously" I followed up

He looked disapprovingly, then pointed over his shoulder "Back right corner"

My face lightened a bit "thank you, to answer your question; No. I didn't think, I'm not paid to think, if I was I'd likely be in the labs like my Brothers."

he shook his head "I hope you're not a pushover"

"I hope to prove that I'm not" I whispered to myself before I walked to the corner and clambered into my bunk

-Later, in the Conference room-

The room was silent before a column of senior officers walked onto the podium. A Gruff one walked up to the mic and with his gravely voice he said "Today;" he glanced to his wrist pad "measurements, endurance tests, and... the firing range, your tag will give you a number, you'll go to the one listed, and that will be your activities for this afternoon, after you'll come back here for secondary assignments"

The Tag on my desk glowed and then showed a '2' so I followed others to the extensive training room, when I entered the tag started blinking '3', and I looked around and saw a three above an area of the room so I jogged over, and looked at the machine, it looked like ranks of tug of war, I tilted my head slightly as the first group went in, and each grabbed on their own rope, and tugged I watched them struggling and noticed the machine counting up the force pulling back, whilst still watching I moved towards the overseer and asked him

"Sir, What's 'legal' in this activity"

"anything goes" he responded

"Do they know that?" I inquired

"No one's asked, they just followed the first demonstration"

"Can I go next?" I flexed my hands

"sure" he pointed to the doorway, and I went for it, The Blond stood by the door as well

"Oh lucky me, I get to see how the strong the newbie is on his first day"

I almost wanted to tell him, but chose not to, when we got to go I headed to the last rope, and took it in my hands, '3,2,1,GO' the sudden yank, shook me for a second, before I got to grounds with the strength and easily pulled back lost ground, about a minute in the pulling force started to get stronger, when I could barely pull anymore, I wrapped my arm around the rope a few times and pivoted on my heel, facing away from the machine, the rope taught on my shoulder, and started to walk and pull from the machine, The Blond notice and remarked "HEY, That's cheating!"

"No it's not, there is no rules on how to win," I said mid pull

the Overseer even agreed with me "he's safe"

the machine jerked suddenly and the strength meter read 'Elite', and I looked to see it was just me and the blond left, everyone else was out, and out of nowhere the rope snapped back, pulling us both off of our feet, the meter read '2x Elite'

our group left the activity and we kinda just sat in silence by the next event. One of the Officers came by "Hey you two, just because the machine gave you that read out do you think you can go wrestling Elites, they don't work on pulling on rope, they, live, breath and die training and fighting, oh and we don't have many live specimens to test their strength so the point is mute"

I clenched my fist "OK, what's next" I said with a strong nod

"Climbing rings," The officer said pointing at a wall of rings

"whats's the catch?" I quickly said

the Blond cut in "the rings are attached to cables, and at least one of them have slack in its cable and will cause you to fall if you aren't careful, and you're supposed to climb fast"

"that's some challenge... uh, what's your name, I don't want to be an asshole and call you Blondie," I said to him over my shoulder, before turning around

"Sam Brooks" he extended his hand for a shake "you?"

"William, William Goodwin" I took his hand and shook

"so you going to try this one?" Sam asked

"afraid to see me fall?" I jested

"Hoping for it actually" He jested back

"I want to see it done first" I said looking back to the walls

shortly the 'game' began, the group charged the wall, grabbing rings and continued up the wall, a few fell with their harnesses catching them before they hit the ground, about half way up and there was almost no one left on the walls

"what's at the top?" I asked

"No one of this class has got up there to find out" Sam waved his hand as another member fell off the wall

"So I'll be first you say?" I gave him a nudge

"Unless I get there first" he gave me a competitive look

we both jumped up to our feet, and walked to the line, when we got in we took our places.

"3,2,1,GO" the timer chimed

climbing the first few rings with ease, the rings started to have a bit of give from the wall, making me slow down and take my time I glanced towards Sam, he was half a dozen rings higher than me, in my mind the ground felt forever away, so I pushed myself and caught up, and even passed him, I stopped at 15 Metres above the ground, Sam was a dozen rings behind me now, I was breathing hard, there were another 10 or so metres left to the top, So I started up again. Then it happened; The next ring I pulled on fell slack, and I started to fall backward, time slowed to a standstill

' _You have to jump, your cable broke'_ A Feminine voice said from what sounded like a great distance

' _How'_ I asked it

' _Like this'_ The voice returned

like I was no longer in control of myself, I watched my right arm pull back hard, and pushed off the lower ring my foot was still on, my left arm extending and catching the ring it was holding a moment before, after the unbelievable move time felt to return to normal, my harness's cable fell past me, unconsciously I popped the carabiner off my harness, and the remainder of the cable fell limply to the floor.

"GOODWIN, STAY STILL, We'll get you down" The Overseer shouted from his position from the ground

"Negative sir! I can't, I'm starting to slip" I shouted back

Sam even shouted "Don't do it, There could be another ring like that one"

Not heading the warning I climbed the next set of rings, the commotion below became silent as I pushed further and further, and when I clasped the top rung, I knew I was almost safe, I rolled onto the hard surface and Yelled with all of my lungs "I MADE IT!"

A few seconds later Sam popped up next to me and clambered up to the hard surface

"Jesus, man, that took balls," He said looking distraught

"My cable snapped," I said gasping for air

"It... What? No, that's not possible" he said looking me in the eyes, to which I held up the frayed cable "they have a load bearing of one ton, there's no way you broke it"

"Hey, Sam?" I said changing the subject "Did I win?"

He gave a Nervous laugh, "Sure"

-Later that day-

After the last of the activities were over, I was assigned to Measurements, the large ring, with help of some autonomous arms, measured my body, and sent that data to the Armoury.

When everyone had finished we were given our armour, and had time to adorn it, I selected a Shield, divided into quadrants, two a light blue, two a darker blue, in each quadrant I placed a Golden chain link, and behind the shield I put two red swords, when I was completed the machine asked me to place my pauldrons into it, when I did it quickly etched the emblem into the pieces, I followed up with the helmet and chest piece, and etched it in. After all of that came fitting, everyone in the group suited up, and made sure everything fit, and stayed together, then it was off to the range, to test accuracy at a variety of ranges, I fell in the top five, Sam wasn't too far behind at 13th, and we had a good chat on the way back to the bunkroom, a few of the other bunk mates were just behind us, as I passed the first bunk, I felt a small tug at foot height, and a small cylinder fell to the ground with a clang, followed by the clink of the pin, at that moment instinct kicked in.

"GRENADE! GET DOWN" I bellowed as I dived onto the device, sliding into the wall curled around the device, I counted in my head _'4,5,6,7'_ then nothing, the room fell silent, and a moment felt like eternity, the lights turned on, and I heard clapping

"Good Job, son," A hardy Male voice said

Subtle whispers said "that's the general" and "Wait he's here"

Still clutching the grenade I spoke "Sir, its live you're not safe here"

"It's a test Goodwin, To your feet," He said cracking his knuckles

I got to my feet, and faced him, as I did I scanned his uniform for a nam- I stopped and froze at the ONI section 0 symbol on his Name plate, my legs fell out from below me, I pushed myself away from him towards the corner my mind raced _'Section 0'_ I repeated to myself, and when I stopped in the corner I shook myself to my senses and stood up, and saluted

"Dismissed" He looked to the others

"Sir, this is where we're dismissed to," Sam said without thinking

"Out!" The General said strongly

the others filed out, and the door shut and locked

"So You do remember me," He said with a Sinister smile across his face

* * *

\- Meanwhile In orbit of Luna -

Corporal Alexis Kane

I sat down in this small hotel like room, and took off my helmet, my orange-red hair fell out of it and brushed the top of my arms

I sigh "I need to trim my hair again"

the PA dinged "All passengers brace for acceleration" and a moment later you could fell the push towards the back of the ship

"Getting reassigned isn't very fun, but apparently I should recognize someone in the team, I mean My uncle serves on the ship so who knows," I say to myself

I mimic someone from my old squad "You don't have to go to sleep in your armour you know"

"got to be ready at a moment's notice," I say to reassure myself that I'm not wrong

I pressed 'Play' on my datapad and an very old song started up

"Middsummer Night, Reminds me of the Midnight Star" I paused "Hopefully it doesn't end up like Sargasso too..." My voice trailed off

" ~Calculation or Miss Miscalculation ..." The music faded as I stared out into the void and was lost in deep thought

'never again' I thought loudly to myself

* * *

 **Welcome to the AN; Hey all, Ho boy, a cliffhanger on Williams part, And an introduction to our new member, that means things are starting to unfold, Who was the voice William heard in his near death experience, and Who is the General? And Why is William aware of ONI Section 0? the future knows, tune in next time to find out.**

 **(that's a weird way to swing it, like its a show or something, ain't it?)**  
 **But in all seriousness the cards are being played and a lot of things** **should** **be clarified in the not too far future so stay with me on this**  
 **Should I have not brought in the Fannon, section 0? because I could always change it.**  
 **I should remind anyone who enjoys my fanfic to feel free to Follow it and leave a review because as I've said a lot, Any input is better than none, even something as simple as a 'good chapter' beats swinging in the dark.**

 **Expect the next chapter coming out around the 28** ** **th**** **of next month, Hope to see you around.**

 **As Always,**

 **Semper Fi**

 **LoyalODST Aka William**


	6. Ch5 Drop Tests

**Welcome back to Brothers in Arms: Blood Brothers, Please remember that Microsoft holds the copyright of the Halo franchise, and TheArizona owns most of the OC's in Carnage, AN at the end.**

* * *

Firefights and Drop tests

00:03 June 22nd, 2550

In Low Earth Orbit aboard The Sprint Facility

Sargent William Goodwin

"So You do remember me, " He said with a Sinister smile across his face

Still stuck in my salute "Alton Lukar, Primary administrator of _**Project SPLICE,**_ The same who picked all of the candidates prior to myself, the last person I saw before and the first one after the surgeries, the man who stuck a machine in my brain and was disappointed that I didn't die alongside it on Sargasso" My voice tightened "What do you want of me"

He looked Mildly annoyed at my response, a stern "at ease" was uttered, before he scratched his head "What happened today?"

"I assume you mean the ring climbing and the cable?" I said flatly

"The jump." He said Pointing his whole hand at me

"What about it?" I asked still avoiding the question at hand

"How. Did. You. Do. It?" He asked with emphasis on each word

"I'm not sure; How it happened, it just did?" I said genuinely

"We both know, that things like that, don't just... happen, " He said clasping his hands together

"I know that Lukar, its just I don't have a reason, it was just so fast," I said running my right hand through my hair

"Well you're gonna have to figure it out before you finish the trails, we- I can't release you until you do, Understood?" His voice hardened on the last word

"I do, Sir", I said quietly

 _The air chilled, and the voice from before rung out "He mustn't know of me; he'll cut me out"_

"you alright, you look like you just saw a ghost?" Lukar looked at me with a look I couldn't place

I shook my head "Nah, I'm fine, honestly, I'm just trying to think of what happened"

"Alright then, I'll be off, if anything comes up tell me ASAP" He turned and left the room shortly thereafter a tone over the speakers rang "Delta- Return to your dorm"

 _the voice returned "thank you"_

 _I responded to it "You are the AI, yes?"_

" _I am; at least part of her. You, you do remember me right" she asked_

" _how could I forget" I though as I clambered into my bunk_

" _its just been that I've been silent since you removed me from you back 4 solar cycles ago" she whimpered_

" _You were too important to forget, I still regret the day I removed you" I looked down_

" _ **This**_ _part of me is stuck in you, leftover data from the implantation process" She continued "and you were only following protocol- staying within the rules, you did as I asked. I trusted- Trust you with my life, or lack thereof..."_

I heard the door slide open and the AI fragment went silent, the light footsteps of the whole bunkrooms' cast 'clacked' on the floor, I didn't turn to face them, or anything, to be honest, I just wanted to sleep this off.

 _-The following morning-_

After the mornings serving of rations came to the day's assignments they were drop simulations and battle trails. Luckily I started In battle trials, they were held in a series of 'maps' with a team comprising of two fire teams, each fire team were deployed in drop pods built into the map.

"First round, Two teams, 'deathmatch' style, last team with standing members win. Chaperones lead out teams to their pods"

to keep the maps hard, and for the ability to make tactics before the match as impossible as possible, our visors were darkened to the point of near complete nontransparency, and we were put into the pods and our weapons were placed in with us, our visors returned to normal as the pods were sealed the overseer would come back on talking about the team lineup and setting the timer to the start of the match ticking

"Five. Four. Three. Two. One" the timer ticked down and on the one the pod door launched off and I jumped from my seat, and landed on the sand like ground, nearly losing my balance, I ran to the nearest mound of earth and slid behind it I readied my DMR as my fire team joined me, two headed down further towards the end of the mound while the other set up at the middle, I focused down range and popped a few snaps at the enemy, no downs but I made sure they kept their heads down, I took another second to observe the map, it was very brown, No foliage or grass cover, and quite rocky, I shook myself back into the match, as a pair of MA5 rounds whizzed by, sending a few snaps back down range downing the gunman, the other fireteam on my team got overrun, leaving four of us against at least six enemy troopers.

"we need to split our team so we can't all get pinned down here" I said before taking a quick look around taking in the environment "you two, I need you up on that hill behind the rock cover, keep them from pushing the flank." the nodded and started off towards the hill "you and me are going to push towards where the other fire team was, we need to a wedge into their formations" a quick nod came from the trooper as he un-slung his M90, I quickly un-slung my MA5 with its 'masterkey' and got ready for our push

We broke cover, I suppressed our foe, when my friend got to the next rock he fired a few rounds with his pistol at the enemy giving me the chance to run too. I reloaded and made sure both of my weapons were ready to go, the other part of my team got into a firefight between three of the other team, so we knew we had at least 3 of the buggers left over on this side.

The surprising thing is that the enemy team over on this side of the map, didn't expect us at all, we popped around a corner and laid a few good shotgun rounds into them and it was over, we quickly looked for their stun rounds, and headed back towards the remainder of our teammates, we ran into one of the enemies and he took out my teammate, to which I downed him, looted my team's M90 and pushed further toward my team, I glanced up at the team list, it was a 2v2 now, I started to get worried when it clicked down to a 2v1, I thought I was about to get pinned, as the trooper slid around the corner.

"Oh thank god" He exclaimed, "thought I was the last blue left"

"Let's get this guy down, the sooner the better" I responded

I brought the M90 over the barricade and the end of the barrel **dinged** off the enemy's helmet, I pulled the trigger, but he smacked the gun up and I missed, he had pistol in hand and raised it at me, I was already pulling myself back towards the ground and the weapon sounded, and I hit the ground, and the buzzer went off

"Blue team wins," The computer voice said loudly throughout the map

 _-after lunch-_

the whole bunkroom had been gathered in the sim ready room and was given the title 'delta', next we were told about our match we were about to do.

"Delta, you'll be participating in today's Defence against all odds match," The Instructor said in a gravelled voice

A collective sigh from the squad concerned me, so I raised my hand "What for tell, is this 'game mode'" I asked

"Well Goodwin, to be 100% honest it's a team building exercise, it will be you; 'delta', versus up to six other classes, you will be holding the fort- well there's no fort here, it's more of a set of small bunkers, and ammo cache, and you have to hold out for a long as possible, or die trying." He looked stonefaced

"Understood... Any limits to weapons or things of that sort" I said stretching my arm out

"In the field is there a limit, soldier?" he responded

"Not really, but are we going to be trying to get to a position under fire, or do we get to set up first?" I said before sliding my helmet on

"You get twenty to get dug in, No more questions?" He looked unimpressed

Nope, I'm ready," I said getting back into line

A minute later in the armoury, I slung an M90, over my shoulder followed by an MA5, and slung a DMR to my waist, holstered two pistols, and moved over to the ammo tables, Sam rolled up "if you're getting dug in, mind if I hull down with you?"

"wha~ no I don't mind, just load up on weapons and ammo," I said slinging two ammo bags over my shoulders

Sam ran over to the heavy weapons and picked up an M247 Machine Gun, and packed it on his back, and quickly followed up with a load of ammo, into a few bags, followed up with his standard loadout with plenty of ammo, when it was time to get out into the field, I stopped Sam and got him to help me lift an M72-S Combat barrier, with us up into the treeline, behind the cache, from the position I could see the other members of Delta had started to make battle lines, and trenches, I reported in "we got an MG up here, gonna lay down the fire thick on them when they get in range, feel free to call out targets on the HUD, we'll make sure they get a dose"

"So we got this thing up here now what," Sam asked with a hint of confusion

"We dig a pocket for it and the MG, then get it camouflaged, then we make me a similar pocket to hide in" I responded before digging into the ground with the metal stock of my shotgun, after a few minutes we dug a nice little hole for Sam, we got the M72-S on its back and over top the hole, we then set up his M247, and slid the ammo into the new bunker, and emptied the bags of ammo into the hole, and then I thought about the extended cases, so we dug a foot deep hole on the right side of the turret, I then filled all the bags with the earth we moved to make the bunker, and quickly made a sandbag cover for myself, we then covered the bunker and my snipers post with the local foliage, confirming with the squad that it was hard to see, we checked the time, three minutes remained so, we moved ammo around and made the two holes more comfortable to be in, and even put a muzzle brake on the M247 to make it harder to spot the muzzle flashes, Sam gave me a quick look

"this gun will deafen me if I don't mute my ears" He tapped his helmet

"all good, all mic you if I need anything, just try not to get spotted or this little bunker may become a deathtrap," I said tapping on the barricade before climbing into my post.

The buzzer went off and we looked for targets to our surprise we went just swarmed, like we though, we knew that they were coming and were ready, but it was well over ten minutes before any enemy came into sight, the team leader made sure that me and Sam didn't just start blowing away targets, the firefight began, and after a few minutes died down, and after few more, they started up again, they were prodding our defences, soon a proper attack started, the team thinned the first wave, when the second wave charged the front the team leader called on us, and we hosed them down, the wave faltered and retreated, soon the attacks came from more than one front, with long range cover and they cleared the first trench but were beat, they still didn't know exactly where we were but they were getting close. Due to the games customs, the enemy team's down members got to head back to their side for future waves, while ours were down and out, I was starting to get worried that we were gonna loose altogether, we were already down ten, we had eighteen more down there, then me and Sam up here.

We were glad for the calm seconds, but soon the rumble of battle began again, to my surprise a cyclops exoskeleton, walked on the field, its LAAG ripped into the defensive line, and soon the second trench line was lost, the final trench was barely holding, while we pumped 100's of rounds into the mech, luckily we got the pilot and the mech shut down, but the base was almost overrun, and we couldn't stay here much longer, I hefted the shield off of Sam, and made it into an impromptu sled, got in front of the MG and got Sam to push us down the hill, Sam still manning the MG from behind me, Using myself as a shield, we cruised into the cache and we redeployed the shield, the six member Delta were glad we showed up to pull them out of the fire, but it wasn't to last, the next wave was full force and even though we cut down 75% of them we still lost, I was the last to fall, Taking up the MG from Sam when he went down, I Backed into the cache, and continued to swipe the front-line, after taking a few shots and being dropped to a knee, the Solid neck wrenching of a Pair of DMR rounds to the head took me out when the buzzer rang, I felt devastated, and stayed on the floor for a few extra seconds.

"you alive in there soldier" Lukar's voice from just above me made me sigh

"yes, sir. Before you ask, I don't know what happened yesterday, but I can't doubt that the possibility of a remnant being in here, But I won't let you do anything to it, I think its just dust and echoes of what you put in here" I said weakly through the speakers

"that's all good; son, don't worry, I'm just here to say you're doing well for a miscreant" He said before helping me to my feet

"Not to be rude sir, but I have a drop sim to get ready for" I said behind bared teeth

he let me leave to my surprise, but made sure to tell me 'if it's your first drop, don't eat something you wouldn't like coming back up' which, made me slightly mad that he'd think I'd get sick from a simulation.

 _-in the pod sim room-_

dozens of ranks of theses simulator pods hiked up on hydraulics and tethered to the roof with big cables.

"In you're pods delta, let's get you through basic" the overseers' voice said in a monotone

we climbed in and closed the bars, a computerised voice projected into the small pod's internals "Welcome to drop practice- today we will run through the pre-launch flight checks, Door sealed... Check, Restraints locked... Check, To both sides of the door is two screens these are your flight data- altitude, and speed, heading and approximate landing site, below those screens, are heating and landing rocket fuel levels on the left, on the right is maneuver thruster fuel levels, and a backup heat level indicator. Above both previous screens are another set of screens they link you to you're the squad leader and platoon leader/leader of operations if necessary, if links cannot connect, data tracks of other pods are displayed, allowing for a more clustered grouping. Please prepare yourself for the first drop test, I will run you through the motions. Please confirm your understanding"

"Yeah, I'm ready," I said nervously before grabbed the restraints

The sim started with a static-covered voice "Alright, We're dropping you in behind enemy lines, secure a landing zone for the birds and then push them out of the city"

Another voice rang out "you heard the major, and we don't disappoint"

"15. 14. 13. ~ 4. 3. 2. 1." the computer voice ticked down and the pod shook, and the simulator started to show the space over a lush world "to tighten formation grab the HOTAS and adjust heading" the computer clicked as it blinked lights on the HOTAS, so I grabbed it and started the maneuver, with a few 'taps' I was on the right heading. Suddenly the computer came back "Brace for Atmospheric heating" as it finished I could see the flames licking the hull, so I firmly grabbed my HOTAS and prepped for emergency maneuvers, a few seconds of near silence passed before I felt the heat spike into the pod, I kept my breathing as calm as I could "During this part of the descent, you will be in the 'plasma blackout' you will be all alone, and no communications will reach your pod or be relayed from your pod" outside the pod was engrossed in a plasma fireball, the heat was excruciating, soon the heat faded and the flames vanished, comms returned and courses were readjusted, ten seconds later the drag fins deployed, leading to a slight jerk of the pod, and the pod to push against me, the next few moments were intense, as the fins detached, I cruised for another 8 seconds, then the retrorockets fired, and we hit the ground with a solid thud, and the sim was over.

"Any questions, trooper?" The computer clicked

"I- I don't think so" I responded, releasing the breath I held in just before the retro's fired.

"Good, because We have another 19 to get through this hour, then after your team is to gather and conversation about the experience, then comes the final official drop sim, after that you can continue practice drops, or go back to the firefights until zero hundred, when you're required to be in your bunks" the Computer stated before resetting the simulator

'here we go again' I thought to myself getting ready for the drop.

after the dozen and a half drops 'delta' regrouped and we talked about how the experience felt, most felt like it was something they would eventually get used to, I got used to the in's and out's of the drop, like timing the seconds between the launch to the ground it varied between 45 seconds and 120 seconds, each time was something new. Shortly after, the overseer came into the room "Brooks, and McKay, you are squad leaders for this drop, and this time simulated 'AA' losses are to be expected in a 'live' combat drop, so get in your pods and get ready, because we'll run this one... Mmmm 10 times, you'll be in comms with each other and us, so let's see how you do"

we stood for a second and the Overseer looked like we didn't hear him "THAT MEANS NOW, GO, GO, GO TROOPERS" we shook and dashed for our pods, and clambered in, the seals locked down, and the restraints locked

the countdown ticked by, at ten, Sam came on comms "All lights are green. We're Green! And Very, very Mean!" the pod rustled as it fell from the ship, at T+12 mark we had some remarks about the lack of the AA we were supposed to get, the T+20 showed the licks of plasma climbing the hull

"Can it, Let's just pray they're as blind as they are stupid" McKay Said sternly

The comms crackled and fizzed, and finally popped when the plasma ball roared around the hull, I kept counting seconds 'T+34' the heat felt like an oven, as it started to cool the Radio snapped back

"INCOMING AA, WATCH THE FIRE" Sam yelled as the purple-blue orbs sizzled by, I could hear pods exploding, and feared the feeling of that, So I pulled and pushed on my throttles, until 'T+45' When the drag fins snapped open hard, and gave me a real bad bang up, the AA seemed as thick as molasses, I held my breath, as the drag fins popped off, I heard Sam yell and a dull thud as his image on the side monitor vanished, My chest tightened, when the retro's were meant to fire they didn't and I flinched, the pods rocked very hard, and felt like it was tumbling, the screens showed that the retro's did fire, I had just clipped a cliff and had began rolling down it, and when the pod came to a stop the restraints clicked open, the screens were dead... or just dark, the odd angle of the pod soon reset, basically telling me 'you died' but apparently not when the pod was righted, the bulky silhouette of the iconic olive green death machines, A Spartan II a few moments later the Sim ended for real.

I spend the next two drops thinking about how detailed the sim could be, and its variables so... variable, what class of AI could think something like this up, and how could it keep making new scenario's every drop, It puzzled me until I fell asleep that night.

* * *

 **Welcome to the AN; Hey all, a long chapter for you, I hope you enjoyed!**

 **So, this chapter might be... rough around the edges, because of how short a time span it was written in; I rewrote the beginning part nearly a dozen times before going with this one, and the rest of the chapter was written in 3-ish days, without a lot of time for editing**

 **This arc is coming to a close in the next few chapters, and moving into new and exiting things will soon follow**

 **Expect the next chapter coming out around the 28** ** **th**** **of next month, Hope to see you around.**

 **As Always,**

 **Semper Fi**

 **LoyalODST Aka William**


	7. Ch6 The Final Sibling

**Alright, Regulars know the drill, Welcome back to Brothers in arms: Blood Brothers, The OC's of Carnage are TheArizona's, While New OC's are my own, AN at the end**

 **Oh, and who could forget Mircosoft holds Copyright of the Halo franchise.**

* * *

First Drop & The Final Sibling

10:00 June 23rd, 2550

Low Earth Orbit aboard the Sprint Facility

Sargent William Goodwin

The Morning activities were busy, Lots of final tests and a few more standard trials, as the day progressed, I started having cold feet about the real drop, but I kept it to myself, No need worrying the others I thought, It all came to a head when we were called to the pods, Our 'drop master' told us how the scenario was going to go down, we'd be launched, and as we arrived at the surface, we were to strip our pods for supplies, Regroup, and set up a landing zone for a pelican, when we got that done, there would be more activities before we were taken to the UNSC base A few clicks away from our landing site, then released after our UNSC records were updated, Officially becoming ODST.

To my surprise my cold feet vanished when I got into my pod, got locked in, and grabbed my Joysticks, it felt like a habit, We ran through all the pre-fall checks, the 'DM' Started a 'green light check' by calling each of us, 'I'm green', 'green', 'all green'

"Goodwin" The 'DM' Called out

"Green" I called back

The remainder of the Unit's calls were done shortly there after, and the pods moved into ready positions, as the main body clamps opened and we were only held to the ship by the firing mechanisms, I firmly gripped my sticks, and clenched my teeth

"All lights are green, Dropping in 3.2.1," the 'DM' said an instant before a solid _Thud_ and I watched the pods fall from the belly of the station

"Just like the drills, Tighten formation. Prepare for the heat" the 'DM' said moving ahead of the pack

'30' I kept my count going in my head

the flames licked the hull, and the heat started to rise, it was starting to really show how different this was to the simulators, at the 45 second mark the Plasma blackout began, and I could feel the ceramic outer layers ablate away, at the 60 second mark, the drag fins deployed as expected the sudden jerk shook me a little bit, I continued to make small adjustments of my course and prepping for the rock of the landing, At the 78 second mark the drag fins detached, Rocking the pod about, and I counted down until the sudden stop

'~" My thoughts were cut short by the Deafening roar of the retro rockets, the _Thud_ and the sound of the metal hull cooling- Boiling away the mist that attempted to gather on its surface

A mechanical voice Bleeped "Eject Door, Release clamps, and Give them hell Trooper" before it changed into a set of long beeps followed by a series of short clicks, then repeated.

I kinda just sat there for a few moments soaking in the experience, I exhaled harshly before popping the door, It released with a _Clang_ as it hit the ground before skidding a few dozen feet, I Hopped out and grabbed up my gear, and shortly had turned the pod inside out gathering the large amount of supplies it had to offer, I rejoined the comm group and got a marker for my HUD, Telling the others I would be there shortly, Turned out my corrections lead me away from the proper LZ, so I had a hike to make to catch up. So I left a marker at my pod for later retrieval, before heading out, the fifteen minute 'Time' pace march brought me to the landing zone, I quickly got in on the necessary procedures and continued helping the others until The Pelican landed on the pad, and we were assigned activities, from camouflage to vehicle repairs, and even the operation of some captured Covenant weapons.

I started with Camouflage, and picked up some useful tips about making yourself harder to be detected, and hiding from the enemy, Tips I wished I knew years ago. I moved on to Vehicle repairs and spent a fair amount of time field stripping and putting together A Hog's LAAG, and even how to re-tread an M808B.

When I moved to Covenant weapons I was just in awe about how big they are up close and in your hands, the plasma pistol was over a foot long, and nearly a foot high, and Nearly as heavy as an MA5C, I thought to myself we don't give our enemies credit on how much stuff they lug around, but then remembered they don't have to carry any ammo. The Plasma rifle was huge Two feet long, over a foot high, and didn't weigh too much more than a rifle, I kind of wished we could have a few of these but then it clicked that these weren't like lighters and could grab a few at the next gas station. I moved away from the notion and continued learning the ins and outs of these weapons.

In the fading hours of the afternoon, we packed everything back up, and boarded the pelican, shortly there after we were at a UNSC force base, and was sitting alongside a few of my other classmates before, a gruff officer called me out of the group, and was quickly swept into a side room, where I was handed a data pad "It's General Lukar, he had a few things to say"

I linked the pad to my helmet and sat down on the chair in the centre of the room "Hello" I said reluctantly

"Good you're here, I know you're sick of my voice, but I implore you to log anything, related with the AI occurs, Whispers, uh... Anything at all" Lukar sounded pressured to make sure I caught onto the concept

"If anything odd happens I'll log it." I replied rubbing the top of my helmet "anything else before I leave"

"I wish you the best of luck," Lukar said moments before the line went dead

'Okay?' I thought as I left the room, as I went out into the open air of the base Sam ran up on me and Asked

"Wanna grab some Drinks with the guys before we all go back 'home'" his smile was warm and inviting

"I-I, uh... Sure why not" I replied before setting a few alarms for the following morning "I can't leave my brother waiting tomorrow"

After a dozen drinks, we got ourselves bunked back into the base and Finished out the night with drunken singing and passing out

 _-0800 The following morning-_

The alarm in my helmet woke me, I Picked up the helmet and I clicked off the alarm, and slowly got on to my feet, feeling Malaise, I slumped around the room and took a short shower, I got dressed quickly and put on my armour, before I fixed up the room, when I left to catch my little brother before I had to return to the Midsummer Night. I caught a MagLev to the neighbouring town, to be fair 'town' was going lightly it was a large UNSC complex RND and included ONI things real 'Hush Hush' kinda stuff, when I arrived and was cleared entry I was escorted to the underground bunker that my brother and his cohorts use as an RND lab, When I entered the main hall I could hear mechanical Whirring and the sound of welding, and a chorus of other machinery, Passing the main offices and walking into the workshop, on a slightly raised pedestal in the center of a group of desks stood a large humanoid robot, on closer inspection, it stood at 7 foot 3 inches, and had a complicated set of digitigrade legs, a very angular chest piece, large arms with human-like hands, and a Right rhombic prism head with a cluster of sensors on both sides of the 'face', I stepped ever closer to the machine, and continued observing it, in the back of its head was an open panel with a slot for an AI chip, I Reached out for the cold metal machine.

"You're not allowed to touch it," A familiar voice said

I flinched away from the mech, and turned to find my younger brother, Theodore, sitting on a desk with crossed legs, giving me a look, I quickly extended my hand "Uh, right, sorry" I replied

He took my wrist and I took his and brought each other into a hug, it lasted for a while, perhaps even awkwardly long, we let go and sat down and he said in a boast "That's an old Prototype Mark III JOYEUSE, An attempt to get human lives off the front line"

"I thought Robots and Automatons were Illegal" I countered

"Well, combat models were... and the blasted Insurrectionist kept using industrial models as 'car bombs' making the production of them severely limited and unfavourable"

"Yeah, can't have insurgents with death machines, now can we," I say with a large hint of sarcasm

Theodore gave a harsh glance, and changed the subject "I'll show you one in action if you want to, If not we have to talk business"

"I'd love to see one of these in motion, but what's this business you speak of," I said getting to my feet

"A common~" He coughs "~Friend, of ours, wants me to give you some tech to trial run for Him"

I sighed "Yeah, I can run tests on what ever, you have me for the day, so-"

"It's not lab tests, its field testing... I'll show you the tech after the Bots" Theodore lead me to the lower facilities past the big machines, and down to the testing labs, At the entrance to the labs, was a small soundproof room with a sign saying 'hearing protection class 1, required beyond this point' so with out thinking I slipped on my helmet and gave it a quick tap, then a nod and followed Theodore into the lab.

The labs were amazing and loud, The percussive booms of an array of human weapons being fired, the Fizzle and snaps of shield technologies sparking off rounds and overloading, the hiss and whizzing of covenant small arms, and the whine of straining metals. Theodore lead me to one of the ranges, where a JOYEUSE was being stress tested, an M247H HMG laid into it, pockmarking the surface of its armour, The MG must have fired off a full 200 rounds, a team of technicians looked the mech over, and gave it a passing grade, before removing it from the range to repair the machine, and replace its armour.

The next range we stopped at Showed a JOYEUSE with a larger back section, the drill started and the HMG opened up, and the rounds squelched and shrieked as the ricocheted off the translucent barrier, after about half of the rounds in the test the shield overloaded and an ear shattering snap emanated from it, followed by the sound of impacting the armour, after the tests, the techs seemed happy with the results and hauled the bot off for repairs.

The next range was more of a demolition ranch, a JOYEUSE was in the middle of the room, it was more like a bunker and the testers had Two M41 SPNKR's aimed down range, they let loose the first rocket, it smashed into the bot and shattered its shields, the scorch marks on the armour, the second hit and ripped the left arm clean off, and causing heavy damage to the chassis, a warm buzzing echoed from the chamber as an orange light wrapped around it, they let the third missile away, and it drilled into the reforming shields, and it knocked the robot over, they called the trial, and the techs checked the damage.

Theodore lead me on through the facility "How many bots do you have here?" I asked from behind him

"37 'Prototype' Mark III's and 20 'Prototype' Mark IV's, We still haven't got our AI for autonomy tests, Our ONI friend has one to be sent to us for trials soon, then you might even see some in the field with you"

I give him a slight nod "earlier you were talking about tech, I need to test"

"Oh. Of course, follow me" He said increasing his step until we reached a less robot filled area of the labs and we entered a smaller room "I need you to take off your chest piece and gauntlets"

I quickly complied, and removed the majority of my armour "Why for?" I asked after I had the final pieces off.

"our Mutual friend; he wanted tech ran through trials, and because of his position and... previous experiences invading your privacy, and your head, he trusts 'you won't break it this time', I don't know what he meant, but~"

"Better not be an AI" I said harshly, then a Chill rose up my spine "...Because; I'm still working over the last thing, Lukar gave me"

"Oh! No, It's a set of armour, something of an alien tech, from the Sargasso Reliquary" He said before vanishing into a back room, and carried out a chest piece, that looked nearly identical to the standard ODST gear, but with a thicker back plate, and a refined chest plate, He followed up with a set of bulky looking bracers, Standard looking boots and have me back my helmet, and full hand gloves. "Once its own, I'll run you through the basics of its tech"

I slid the armour on and strapped it up, it only felt a few pounds heavier than the set the sprint gave me, and the bracers didn't affect me at all "Now what is this" I ask looking to my brother

"Shields, but not full body ones, the tech wasn't that kind, think like the knights of old and, you'll get it" he said before entering the range, I followed suit, he pointed me to the end of the range and told me "Hold up your left arm in front of you, then turn it on"

"Turn it on?" I looked my arm as I held it out

"Right, back side of your left arm should be a panel, that opens up to a display, it should have a power switch and shield type and other settings, please turn it on, and take a stance" He cocked an M6 at the table

I slid the panel open and pressed the switch, a new item popped up on my HUD, Showing a rectangle "Now what?" I asked looking at the new HUD item

"Close the panel and press your left hand into a fist, the system should turn it on" he answered aiming the gun down range at me, so I clenched my hand and a translucent blue Scutum appeared on my arm, to my surprise it weighed nothing and a moment later I heard the sizzle and snap of the pistol round impacting the shield, the push back was muted, Theodore nodded "How was that? shouldn't have been more than a simple push"

"I barely felt it, Why doesn't the whole navy have this?" I asked as I watched Theodore reach into a case and take out a plasma pistol

"Two reasons. One, it's only a prototype, second, we could field a full company of ODST's, Training and drop pods included for the same cost as one... You are currently wearing two" He looked at me with the pistol between his hands

My head turned to him, and my arms dropped "that's an impossibly high price" I muttered

"Is it really?" he looked back up at me raising the new gun "Take your stance, I would really hate to actually hit you"

I took my stance, and the green bolt fizzled on the shield, the impact was stronger than the M6, "that was different" I said twisting my arm around with the shield

"next is an overload, to see how fast it recharges" Theodore said re raising the weapon, the weapon glowed brightly, forming a large orb at the front, I took up my shield and braced, the bolt flew down range and hit the shield, both of which gave a loud popping sizzle, as the shield went down, I kept attempting to re-ignite the shield, after a full ten seconds I was able to get the shield back up in front of me "That took longer than earlier tests, maybe the mobile power plant is not as powerful as the original tests' generator, Noted for further development" Theodore said writing that down

I sat down "so you put me- ME into something that costs more than a tank, to bring field testing and~"

"It's not the only gift we have for you, That is from Lukar, This-" He pulls out an ornate looking handle "is from me, and my friends. Here" he hands it to me

I give him a glance "a bladeless hilt"

he sighs "Hold it out, and turn it on, don't point it at anyone- Unless you plan on killing it, Its a Modified Type 1"

"type On- Sword! It's an energy sword, you made me a sword-" I grab him in a hug which he clearly wasn't expecting "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"You're welcome; consider it a favour repaid- and a welcome back," He said before returning the embrace

I hold out the hilt and activated the blade, the Hiss emanated from the blade "how~ Why?"

"One of the policed weapons, I think it was one from a Field master... uh the Golden ones, If that holds anything of a; symbolic nature, or something"

"It'd piss them off if anything," I say with a laugh

"If you want I could set you up on one of my office Pc's, today's been kinda slow anyway, And if they need me they'll find me," Theodore said before leading me back up to the offices.

Later in the day while we were playing a game of chess versus each other, the holographic table in the middle of the conference room lit up "Theodore Goodwin?" a Calculated Feminine voice asked

"Yes?" He asked as looking at the terminal

"there isn't anything like finding our man... Oh, I am ANG 0537-1~" her holographic head shook side to side "~My name is Anglia, I'll be the AI working on your projects with you"

She had a slim form, and a tight fitting suit, with a skirt and a black UNSC cap and thin headset, She had a pistol holster under her right arm and made most of her gestures with her left arm.

Her head tilted to me "And Who is this?"

"He is my brother, Who I have very limited time with, so if you would please, go introduce yourself to the other project heads," Theodore said with a wave of his hand

"Sir!" She gave a right handed salute and vanished from the holographic table.

"... things are going to get busy soon, You could leave anytime if you want. Your team is probably waiting for you" Theodore looked to me

"Alright, I should be able to catch a ride up tonight," I said pulling up a data pad and started to make my request "It'd be good to find out who our eight is, Apparently I know them, Which has been eating at me since Jack told me"

"Hopefully, you two will get along, Oh and send my regards to your new team," Theodore said as Anglia showed up again

"Sir, it's time- Oh, William the next shuttle agreed to take you with it, if you go now you should catch it" She said before blinking away again

"Well, Shit," I said slapping my helmet on and checking I hadn't left anything behind, I bolted out the door "Bye, see you next time!"

"If there is a next time," Theodore said while waving me off.

* * *

 **This was the Closing chapter to the 'ODST 'sprint' Training' Arc, New things await our hero's in the next arc.**

 **Expect the next chapter to be out on the 28** **th** **of next month, and I hope I'll see you around.**

 **Feel free to leave a review, and if you enjoy the story why not follow it so you can stay up to date on all the newest releases**

 **As Always,**

 **Semper Fi**

 **LoyalODST Aka William**


	8. Ch7 Back Together

**Welcome back to Brothers in arms: Blood Brothers, Please remember the OC's of Carnage are TheArizona's, While any new characters are my own, AN at the end**

 **Microsoft holds the copyright to the Halo franchise**

* * *

Back together

22:00 June 23rd, 2550

UNSC Midsummer Night

Sargent William Goodwin

I hopped from the back of the pelican after it clicked into its berth, and stretched out my arms and started off towards the squad's barracks when I arrived and found it empty and stood in the door for a few seconds

"Welcome home." The sweet warm voice on Mandy echoed through the room "the others are down in sim room, they're running combat drills, perhaps you should pay them a visit?"

"I will be right down, Don't tell them I want to surprise them" I responded before pivoting on my heel and started out

 _\- Meanwhile, in the Sim overview chamber, Jack stood with Dmitri watching the team in a firefight -_

I leaned in towards Dmitri "Do you think they're getting any better?"

"Sure feels like they are, Connors is getting swifter, Stein is showing better marksmanship, McFee is getting his reaction time up, and Anders... he's been opening up more, I think he's learned to trust them."

"Good, good. Do you think we're pushing them too hard?" I asked

"Too hard? No, This should become common place to them, They need to be ready- at all times"

The Door slid open and Two figures walked in one was Foster and a smaller Feminine form.

"Ah here they are," he said Swinging his hand towards us

The woman nodded and walked towards us, and out stretched her hand to Dmitri "Mr Price its an honour" Dmitri looked at her confused, before shifting his head to me "OH!" she quickly moved her hand towards me, I took it and shook it

"Miss Kane, I presume," I said, still in the firm handshake

"Yes sir." she said looking past me "I was told there would be more members"

"They're in the pit, and should be finishing up this Sim soon, Come and see" I turned and walked up to the glass, She followed and looked down at the battle down bellow

"wasn't there meant to be eight? I only count seven" she kept scanning the battle

 _-William walked around the corner, entering the hallway that leads to the Sim room-_

I slowed as I approached the door, and turned away heading back down the hallway, knocking on my helmet

"you can do this, They're your team, Just be normal," I said to myself taking off my helmet clasping into my side, and beginning towards the door again, and entered the room, slowing down next to Foster. the odd silence perforated the room, shortly thereafter Foster coughed loudly getting the attention of the three by the window.

Alexis dropped her helmet and sprinted at me, In a half second reaction I dropped my own, and caught her as she jumped at me, her momentum pushed and caused me to take a few steps back whilst turning, the trio in front of us gave suspicious looks, so I set her down and looked at her.

"How did you get out?! the reports listed the whole division was destroyed, last time I saw you-" I looked to the floor, and trailed off

"I hitched a ride with the 313th, and YOU where not in the roster, of survivors- I thought you were gone too" She raised her voice

"I was on the last boat, and thought I was the last one, I didn't even give a name, just the division number and they stopped asking"

She slammed her fist on my breastplate "you didn't even look for me did you?"

"I was afraid of what I would find- I assumed the worst" I whimpered, my stance slumped

She pushed away from me and Glared at me

"The comms said the division was gone, You were still with me then The attack happened with the hasty retreat, and a fucking covie cruiser glassed the area, then I had 15 men, and we stood our ground, till i was the LAST man- then they stopped... how do you tell someone who just lost 400 lives in three hours 'your the last one left'- you don't"

"Captain Rosenstein, was in command of 1,000 men- they were still out on the front- a covie carrier parked above them and dropped 40 times numbers on them" Foster spoke up "Alexis told me some of the battles, she got out of the fire-base just to be stranded for two hours, marching- she found a retreating armour 'column' of two tanks and a hog, all heavily damaged, they picked her up and continued to the extraction zone"

I firmly placed my hands on her shoulders and shifted my head to the door "A second of your time"

Alexis gave a slight nod and started towards the door, I followed and once we left I closed the door "I didn't leave until the full retreat order, I stayed with hopes that I'd run into you, but when the final boat left, I had to go, and my hope started to falter... But like a ghost you return, so how about we start fresh, its been 4 years and we've both likely changed so much, it'd be an insult to our old selves to ignore the time in between, now and then."

She gave me a look I couldn't quite place, then agreed with me "we can start over, start as friends?"

I nod "yeah, let's start as friends, and see what happens"

She opened the door, and we entered together, Jack gave a quick glance, and I gave a slight nod, he turned back to the Sim, which had just come to an end.

Shortly after the squad walked into the observation room, and stopped and they watched as Alexis and I nodding firmly and passing them by.

"Mandy~ Run Villa if you may, from my personal sim files," Alexis said as we headed down to the ready rooms.

"Pistols, Training swords and fists?" I said before we parted ways

"Duh~," She said before flashing me a quick piece sign and headed off to the other room

I picked up a pair of pistols, put them into my hip holsters, and affixed a magazine bandolier to my left side, I slid my sword into its holster on my back and started loading up all of my ammo

"Map loaded, teams to your position" Mandy spoke out into the many rooms

-in the observation room-

"This map is tiny, Its literally just a house and its front and back yard," Connors said before looking back down "and our eighth is a chick, William has got this"

everyone shot him a glance before Jack spoke up "As much confidence as I have in William, I have to give the same to her, they seemed to be close; they might just be a good match for each other"

-in the sim-

"Three. Two. One. Start!" the timer buzzed down and the doors opened and we both sprinted on to the map, we exchanged fire and took cover, we soon moved into the house fighting room to room, up and over furniture, through doorways and down a flight of stairs, It was more a game at this point than a fight, We were laughing and reminiscing, but too soon the fun turned serious, *Click* 'guns are empty', We were outside at this point, the air felt still and cold, I threw one of my pistols towards her, and she caught it with her blade launching it off the play area, we then both tossed our guns off the map, and readied our blades, and started to orbit each other looking for our opening, the air got tense as we closed the distance to just a bit more than our blades extended, I stared into her visor, and I could tell she was doing the same.

"Is it a bad time to start talking?" I asked rolling a shoulder

"It might be, Why?" She replied still continuing her circle

"It's honestly the best thing that I get to see you again" I said cheerily and she came to a stop and froze like a statue, I tapped my blade on her shoulder "round one, Victory" I laid some musical fanfare to the aftermath and before I knew it She struck me in the back with an audible *Th-wack*

"I totally deserved that," I said from the ground

she leaned in "round two, Victory" Which brought a smile to my face.

Our match continued for nearly half an hour, In our final match we clashed in a deadlock, our swords bound together- unbudging, our full might's pushing against one another, in a quick flurry of movements we were both disarmed and were locked in a wrestle, I outmatched her in raw strength but she was more nimble and flexible easily slipping from my grasp half a dozen times, I finally pinned her- or so I thought, she got our and grabbed my head with her legs, slamming me to the floor and had me in a choke hold.

suddenly a bag fell next to us with a clatter, we looked up to see the rest of Carnage a few meters away geared with pistols and looked to be carrying a lot of ammo, we unhooked and looked into the bag- Four pistols and a large amount of ammo- I knew what was about to happen, and quickly snatched up a pistol

"RUN" I took a few snaps towards them as the readied their weapons

We booked it inside and took up defensive positions, the map flickered from the home it was to ruins of the same house- it was war torn, windows were broken, walls crumbing, Doors damaged, and furnishings degraded. It felt like a nightmare come alive- I've seen plenty of ruins of houses and war torn planets, but this- This was *our* first house, and it felt wrong to see it like this.

you could here the others walking carefully towards the main door, and I readied myself, the door was kicked in and they charged in for cover, I managed to tag Connors with a round or two, Stein took a few pot shots my way, the sound of a second door, caused me to duck into the nearest room- they split up to pin us in, I readied myself and poked out, firing down the hall tagging Jack with three rounds and he went down, But both Anders and McFee fired back, nearly tagging me, I could hear Alexis in a firefight on the lower floor, it quickly heated up and came to an end, heavy foot falls approached me from both sides, I was alone and ready for this, prepping both pistols, and getting some cover, they charged the room, I managed to take down McFee, and tagged Dmitri with half a dozen rounds, it was to my surprise when Anders burst through the wall next to me, and gave me a clip full, in my last moments before the armour locked I tagged him in the helmet with my last round, and collapsed.

A loud buzzer rang out and the armour released "Looks like a draw" Mandy said cheerily, we shortly left the sim room.

Jack spoke up "you guys go grab a bite to eat, me and Dmitri got to go set something up, well call you up when we're ready."

"Alright" I quickly replied giving Alexis a quick tug, she followed me towards the Mess hall on the way I started to test the water "So, did you talk to you mother recently"

She gave a quick glance "A little, not much at least; she's happy I'm still willing to talk to her though"

"That's good, I got to see some of my brothers recently- they're doing fine, and As you can see I joined the ODST, Remember when we said we'd never do that" I chuckled "that was along time ago, now"

she nodded as we entered the mess, and we had a small meal, and chatted by the window, I would occasionally point out to the moon, or out at the stars, She really seemed to enjoy my antics.

Mandy entered my Comms "Jack is ready for you, feel free to return to the bunks"

"uh, Alright Mandy we'll be right up-" I look to Alexis "Come on, I'll show you the bunk room" and she got up and followed me

The walk up to the bunk room was quiet, and when we got inside, All of the bunks had been moved, and a circle of chairs had been set up around a Lantern, It's Yellow-Orange glow lit the room, and the squad was waiting for us, Dmitri soon Walked into the room with a large box of something and Jack followed in with a smaller box

"Grab a seat, we'll be over in a sec" Jack said as he opened his box

We all took a seat and Jack came around and gave everyone a bottle of booze and finally took a seat "Our R&R won't last forever so I put in a order for a 'party' and If my Intel is good we won't be going anywhere for a little bit, so we should be able to get as drunk as you want, Just don't over do it, I don't want to try and lift any of you tonight"

we started to stake sips of our drinks "what's this all for Jack?" I asked looking around the room

"Well back on Spiron we had a little bonding section, I think its only fair if we have a one here, with you two"

"oh, ok. Who's first then?" I replied

Dmitri put down his first empty bottle "I'll go" he started "well, as you know I'm a Russian, and was a labourer for my dad, until the end of high school where i got into weightlifting, and soon became one if not the top weightlifter in all of Russia, and shortly after joined the army, met Jack and have been serving with him ever since"

"I'm next" Connors said standing up "I'm from reach, and got got in a big fight and nearly killed some kids, Got myself in a Juvenile Detention Center and was forced to fight others often, When I reached 18 I was given the option to join the military instead of going to prison and i took it, and after my mandatory service period i went looking for a way to stay in, Found the ODST and signed up, now I'm here"

Anders stood "My family was abusive and in self defense shot my siblings, and was in military custody until i could join, now I'm here, and still learning to fully trust people"

Stein looked up "I was an apprentice for my dad- who was a doctor in Germany, got conscripted and Things kinda lead me here"

"I am from Europa" McFee said before taking another sip of his drink "and was blamed for a bombing, after I was proved innocent I left, and joined the ODST"

I spoke up "I was born on March 29th of 2514- making me 36 years old, I was born in the Greater Nippising Area, more specifically the old city of 'North Bay', my Family is militarily driven, My Father was Highly religious, even in his military service, He got discharged after getting into a conflict with his higher ups, but he was a genuinely a good man. Uh, I'm the second of 4 children, Just young enough to be a huge nuance to my older brother in the early years" I waved my hand in front of me with a smile on my face "I wasn't very prevalent in taking care of anyone, I tended to stick to myself, while Idolizing my older brother, wanting to do _Everything_ he did, this didn't last forever though; during my late childhood my parents divorced and it left a rift in all of us, Me and my older brother became friends, and my younger siblings seemed to move away from me, One was really aggressive all of the time, and the other went full bookworm. In my early teen years I ran into jack, during one of his trips to Earth, we became good friends during that time, When I was about 20 I met this amazing person" I poked Alexis "and we hit it off, and got close, we moved in together, into our house -it was the map we fought on in the sim. After two years with a general lack of success in finding a decent job on Earth we joined the Marines, at this time Civilians were just starting to grasp the scale 'insurrectionist' issue, food shortages had reached the core worlds with little understanding of how our agricultural worlds would just stop sending food, in truth we were being kept in the dark about the Covenant, and how on the back foot we really were. This was in '34 so, after we were deployed for our first set of missions we learned we weren't fighting humans, but something much worse, this came to a head at Sargasso, where our entire division was destroyed and I though I was the last one left. After the battle I was moved to a backwater world- Spiron, I was given a squad and was part of the colonies defense force, that lasted about 4 years... that's when the covenant showed up, and they you guys arrived, the rest is history"

"I'm next" Alexis said before starting "I was born on April 2nd of 2516 to an English/Irish family, I'm 34, I was born on the Lunar colonies, My family was a Prestigious military family, almost everyone served. My childhood was pretty quiet, Lots of the shooting range and hand to hand classes, In my teens things heated up a bit with my family- this was about when the war started so a lot of my family started going on campaign; When I had a fight with my Mother, I 'ran away'~ I just walked onto a transport and no one asked any questions, and for a few months I just hung around with some friends before Finally returning- I mean I still talked with my mom, we decided it was a learning experience than a punishable offence, it didn't take too much longer before it happened again, we fought and I left, this time I met William, At first I was really cautious, but" She Nudged me "he seemed to stupid to take advantage of me and we became good friends, and we moved in together shortly after, he struggled finding work, and soon we had 'the talk', you know- where we wanted to go, Who we wanted to be, and we both finally came to agreeing in joining the corps, the boot and the first few fights were hard to handle, the first time you shoot something and intend to kill it, its an odd feeling... Oh god than Sargasso. The battle went all wrong, and for about a month William was in charge of the remainder of the division, and~" She shook her head "we were safe one moment and then gone the next, I retreated with an armour column and got off world, And joined the ODST because After three months of scanning the after action reports of the battle, and the complete loss of our division, and my Closest friend... I had nothing left to live for, but I couldn't end it, I still had a lot of fight left in me, I was hopping that battle would take me, it'd been four years, and it hasn't yet." she stopped "I have something a bit more personal to share, so here it goes...My previous ODST squad was... Not good people to say the least, so if you find me sleeping in my armor its because of them- lot literally but" She looked to the floor "I don't want to talk about them anymore, they can't hurt anyone any more, I made sure of that... because I killed them"

The squad went from enjoying the story to 'Oh my god' really fast and Connors blurted out "what did they do?"

"They did awful- Amoral things to me, Please I'd rather not talk about it"

Our sombre party continued late on into the night.

* * *

 **Quick apology for the chapter ending on a dark/Sad tone, it kinda just ended up that way when writing it  
Reviews, follows and favourites are always appreciated.**

 **The next chapter should be up around the 28th of next month and I hope to see you around.**

 **As Always,**

 **Semper Fi**

 **LoyalODST Aka William**


	9. Ch8 Redeployment

**Welcome back to Brothers in arms: Blood Brothers, Please remember the OC's of Carnage are TheArizona's, While any new characters are my own, AN at the end**

 **Microsoft holds the copyright to the Halo Franchise**

* * *

Redeployment

08:00 June 25th, 2550

UNSC Midsummer Night

Gunnery Sargent Jack Price

I sat up with a slight groan feeling the after-effects of my fair share of alcohol last night, I took a glance around the room, Dmitri lay across two bunks, Stein was propped up against the wall, Connors Was strewn on the floor half buried with a mattress, Alexis was snuggling a pillow with a death grip, and William was sleeping slumped up against the bed Alexis was on, my eyes searched the room for McFee, when I didn't find him, I scanned again.

"McFee?" I whispered, "Craig, Where are you?"

the sound of boxes in the hall got my attention "I'm out here Gunny" He said sounding chipper, I stuck my head out the door, And McFee was lifting two boxes, and he gave me a glance "Still dusty Gunny?"

"Could be cleaner, but yeah, I'm dusty" I replied to his _'are you hungover'_ question "want a hand with the boxes?" I asked him

"Sure would like one, but it's not necessary Gunny, don't need you tripping up and spilling the rations" he answered

"you seem awfully sober, care to explain" I Quipped

"I'm a Scott, we out drink an Englishman any day of the week, and wake up ready for the next round"

I scoffed and returned to the room, when he put down the boxes, I looked through what he had brought up, pulling out packets of food, snacks, acetylsalicylic acid tablets... "Good thinking on the aspirin, if anyone has a headache they'll thank you for it" I said before pulling out a few snack and protein bars and sitting down to eat them, the chair slid below me and made an awful scraping noise

"Oh my ears" I heard Connors say pulling a pillow around his head

Stein slowly got up and saw the boxes of food "oh yay" and he walked over, noticing the Aspirin "oh thank Christ" he took two, a water bottle and two ration packs before taking a seat on a floored mattress, Dmitri looked around the room

"aye, Jack, How are the Boys holding up?"

"They're not dead, so that's a big plus," I said before taking a tablet and a swig of water

William started to get up, but Alexis reached out and pulled him onto the bed and started snuggling him "whelp" He said quietly accepting his fate

I brought him over a tablet, a snack bar, and some water

He whispered "thanks, Jack, can you bring a second round for her... Just in case"

I nodded and brought another set of 'hangover aid' over and left the two to the slow wake up, and gathered up another set of aid to help out Connors who had buried himself deeper under the mattress with a second pillow "Connors" I whispered "Take these, and they'll start to help", A hand jutted out from under the bed and he made a 'give me' gesture, so I gave him the tablets and pre-opened and the water bottle, quickly resealed it and gave it to him.

A soft "thanks, Gunny" emanated from below the mattress

I took to my feet and sauntered over to the door, and watched a few squads of 829th marines heading off to the Sim, or the mess

"McFee, Take care of them I'm going for a short walk" I said as leaving the doorway, Firm in my step passing a group of Marines, and soon after their bunk rooms, started making way to the outer hull, soon finding a view port to the void, and it caused me to pause, I watched the Earths shadow cover the ship, and the starscape came to life, thousands of specks of light lit up the darkness.

"It's one of life's great sights" William said just loud enough to hear

I nodded "I can see why you like it up here" He approached and stood next to me, looking out at the stars and suddenly tapped me

"over there" he pointed to a spot of space that twinkled and shone "Ships just jumped in-" he was cut off by Static

The Captain called over the intercom "All Company heads to the briefing room, Repeat all company heads to briefing"

"I'll get the men together~" Williams' face seemed concerned "Just in case" I nodded and watched him dart off, I took another glance out to the void before double-timing it to briefing, taking the stairs instead of waiting for the elevator, only slowing when I reached the door into the briefing room, Foster, Garcia and Dmitri had beat me there and I quickly fell in line, only seconds before Captain Davis joined us

"Good morning gentlemen" he started " as of 12:00 hours today, we have been reassigned, HIGHCOM has put us into a task force heading back out to active service in the next few days, Mandy pull up 'assignment one' on the holo-table" he paused to clear his throat " After joining the Battlegroup Echo Delta 2550-Sierra" the holo-table flickered showing six ships: _Two Marathon-Class, One Phoenix-Class, Two Charon-Class, and One Paris-Class._ "we will be Investigating a research base that has gone dark, we are to find out what happened there, and if worst comes to worst we're to destroy it so nothing falls into covenant hands... any questions"

I raised my hand "Sir, this seems more like an army than a scouting and recovery mission, Two Charons, a Phoenix? those are ground support, is there things we don't know?"

he looked at his data pad, and scrolled on it for a few seconds before stopping "Mandy, Assignment two please"

The holo-table flickered again, this time a planet showed up

Foster forcefully placed his hands down "That's Sargasso, what's going on Captain"

"Apparent after Operation one, we are to swing out to Sargasso, and 'secure' the planet. there is a lot of black tape here, I don't know ether, this wasn't in my documents when HIGHCOM gave me this"

Mandy appeared on the holo-table "Captain, The _Alexandria_ is hailing"

"Bring it up" The Captain replied, and six rectangles winked into existence above the table

"Captain Nick Davis, This is Vice Admiral Viktor Romel, Commander of the EDS battle group. I see you have you're unit's chief officers with you, this makes this quicker for the two of us, Your documentation should show our mission as to check up on a base that has... stopped transmitting messages, Our second order is an ONI top priority, which we have been tasked with, under supervision of the ONI Millennium" his voice had a tone of disdain at the mention of an ONI vessel accompanying us

"Yes, I just ran the mission past them"

"Good! good, we will get our officers together, and head out before 18:00 tomorrow" Viktor said before pausing "We'll be in touch Captain" and the holo-table went dark

Davis turned towards us "uh" he paused "I guess you're dismissed until called upon"

the four of us filed out of the room and Foster and Garcia went their own ways, Dmitri laid a heavy hand on my shoulder before passing me and heading towards the bunks, I started down the stairs but soon came to a stop about halfway down a flight, I took a seat and just sat there

"Jack?" Mandy said from the corner of the room, I looked up and saw the little camera ball's lens focus "Are you alright." her tone was intense and serious

"I'm fine, I'm more worried about my squad" I returned the serious tone

there was a slight lull in her response "All vitals reading normal... Why do you worry?"

"I wasn't present at Sargasso, but William and Alexis lost good friends there, I don't know how to tell them that they're going back" My voice was a coarse monotone

"You don't have to tell them, I Cou-" She started and I cut her off

"No, It feels like a slap to the face not to tell them"

I could feel Mandy processing the intent behind the statement "I think I understand Jack, I'll leave it to you" and I sat in the returning silence for a minute before standing up and continuing down towards the bunk room, the room was quiet when I got there everyone was just relaxing, and nursing their heads

"I have news" I paused "Fall in line" I piped up, everyone quickly stood and lined up

They seemed rather curious about what I had to say.

"Our next assignment starts tomorrow, We are checking on a base gone dark, and after... We are tasked by ONI to" I stopped and looked to William and Alexis, and took a deep breath "Swing out to Sargasso, and find something they want" I watched William's shoulders droop and Alexis turned towards him and the placed her head on his arm "I felt it would be wrong not to tell you, I know it probably feels like opening old wounds, so I'll leave it here"

the rest of the squad stayed quiet as the line slowly dispersed, shortly after a slow throbbing in the back of my head made me decide that taking a rest would be the best course of action.

 _-The next day-_

I awoke and swung by the mess, then prepared to leave, the Battle group had rendezvoused in orbit high above Earth, Foster and I were to meet the other commanding officers of the battle groups ground detachments, exchange information, and get to know each other. Foster met with me as we headed towards the hangar, the bird was still cold when we arrived but the pilots soon showed up and got her started, we clambered aboard and took our seats the door sealed shut and we departed towards the _Alexandria_ It was a relatively short flight and we soon found our way to were we were to meet the other heads, I took out my data pad and started to get Carnage's documentation together, I saw Foster was doing the same, but knowing him, he had prepared much more than I had.

I had just finished and started talking with Foster before a small group of five approached us, and we turned to meet them, the Closest extended a hand to Foster "I'm Brigadier General Johnathan Foxley, My friends just call me 'Fox' for short, You two are from the new addition, right?"

"yes sir, that would be correct, I'm Colonel William Foster, this is Gunnery Sargent Jack Price, he leads our ODST squad"

"Well, I should probably introduce the four Colonels behind me," he points to his left "Sasha Edwards and Micheal Torn" points to his right "Tomas Jackson, and Garret Phelps, Leading the 578th, 653rd, 932nd, and the 1047th respectfully an~" He was cut off

"General!" someone across the room called before hastily making her way over "you left me behind again"

In a slightly annoyed tone "And This is Tonya Lebel, Our Lieutenant Colonel leading the 790th Battalion, How she got the rank I can't see, but I'm stuck with her" His tone lightened "I could teach her the ways to be proper. she may be a good commander yet"

"Hey! I'm a fine leader, I just talk too much" She retorted

I extended my hand to her "I bet you are, Jack Price, ODST squad leader of the Midsummer Night"

She took my hand "have you met the other ODST commanders yet, I could bring you to them if you haven't yet"

"I haven't met with them yet, So please lead the way," I said following the eager young woman as we got out of earshot of the others "how old are you, he seems frustrated that you're such a high rank"

"me? I'm 24, I received two battlefield promotions, One at the age of 19, the other at 23, Most of the higher ups I've served with don't like my talkative demeanor, I can get on their nerves too easily, but when two different Generals give you the boost, not much can be said about it, I can tell you it's not nepotism, The last Lebel to have any high-ranking position in the military was back in the earlier part of the Inner Colony Wars, Unless someone is looking back like 'yup, same last name, must be just as good' and who would do that."

I gave her a slight nod "you said you are talkative, and I agree, could we have a second of-" she cut me off

"Ah! here they are" she said pointing to a group of people

"um, thanks, Tonya," I said before parting

"You're welcome!" she exclaimed before turning and going to talk to someone new

I approached the group, "ODST?" I asked cautiously

A gruff younger voice spoke up "Who wants to know"

"Gunnery Sargent of Carnage squad, the Midsummer Night's ODST troop" I responded

"Carnage eh? Got a Frenchmen with you?" His tone was still coarse and dry

"No?" I responded

"Goes by the name of William Goodwin"

I remained silent

"ah, you do got him, the Fruity coward"

"I think you have the wrong person" I gave him a glance

"You think I don't know my own brother, the Fruity Faggot Fuck-boy" he sounded aggressive

I Stepped forward and grabbed him by the collar, lifting him up from the ground "I don't give a fuck who he is to you, He's a man under my command, And I'll gut you if you dare Insult him again"

"Do your worst" He said with a mocking tone, the group of soldiers around us had made a small ring round us

"He's your brother for gods sake, if you can't treat him like family at least treat him like a comrade, and yet you say these Bigoted words, Claiming you know him, if he is a coward, he's the bravest one I've ever met, And it takes me to meet you face to face to understand why he calls you the biggest asshole he's ever met, For the Longest time I thought he didn't want to talk about you because you were dead, but its because you hate him!" I had winded up to punch him as Both Fox and Foster interfered, Foster pulled me away and Fox pulled Jay away

Fox was furious " _ **Why are you ODST always at each others throats, I expected this from Jay, But you Price? I expected better from a veteran!**_ "

A pair of black Suited ODST Approached with Humbler Stun devices "You two are still part of today's 'event', but be warned any misconduct will result in necessary force"

I clenched my teeth "I understand" the Black suit took up a place just behind me, and I could hear Jay say "what a fucking coward" a moment before he the Humbler was used on him, and the gruff Black suit barked "get moving"

The rest of the meeting was uneventful, and when we arrived back aboard the Midsummer I headed straight to the bunk room

I entered the room and flopped on one of the mattresses, which made a lot of noise

"Jack?" William asked from some were in the room as some rustling happened

"William, Jay sends his regards" I said into my pillow

"Oh, I see, Good to know that he's going to be close" William's voice sounded sarcastic

"he called you a Fruity Frenchman, and much, much more" I hissed

"yup sounds like him-" he said before getting really quiet "hey, stop that"

"William... Is Alexis with you"

"No." Alexis whispered "Fuck" she said louder

"Yes" William responded

"I don't condone it, but You're free to do what ever"

"Wait, Gunny we were just cuddling, if it wasn't obvious me and Alexis were dating once, and she wanted to be close to me again"

"Just sharing a bunk?" I said implying my disbelief

"Yes" They both said simultaneously

I rubbed my face "Whatever, Just don't make it a normal thing, I'm supposed to berate you two and report it, but right now I'll just say 'I highly discourage the continuation of these actions' its not like we got any shore leave after the last mission, You two could always make an anonymous query to the captain, and see if you two can get 'get a room' I've seen plenty of married couples get special treatment, how ever I've been told the rooms are quite small"

the room was silent for a few moments

"Does that mean I hid under the bed for no reason" Alexis asked

"Uh, thanks Gunny" William stated

"Just know that you two can always bunk with us" I said moments before Connors and McFee entered the room,

"hey Gunny, hey William" Connors said heading to his bunk

McFee had stopped just a bit past the door, and turned back "Alexis" and turned back

Alexis slowly climbed out from under the bed, red in the face

Connors gave them a look "Why was she under your bed"

"No Reason" they said together hastily

"Mhmm" Both Connors and McFee hummed

"Lets just call it a day, the big freeze begins in the morning" I said from my bunk and rolled over

"Yes Gunny" the four of them said

-The next morning, In the cryo bay-

William and I watched the members of Carnage prepare for the long slumber, William looked over to me "I'm suppressed that none of you asked about Sargasso, Stein showed some concern after you told us our deployment, rambled as he does. The thought was nice, but poorly executed"

"I'm not the one to ask for someones history, I feel its more appropriate when they willingly tell me, Like when we did the lantern stories about our past, you didn't have to tell us anything you didn't want to. If you want to we could ask to be woken up early and you could tell me all about it"

"You would willingly sit and listen to me ramble about one of the worst things that's happened to me?"

"Yes, Friends help friends, its pretty simple if you don't want to, you don't gotta"

"It be nice to get it off my chest, so sure if we could get up a few days early, and I'll tell you the whole thing"

* * *

 **Welcome to the AN, Hows that to an introduction to a side story about what happened to William and Alexis before, during, and directly after the battle of Sargasso, this side story will not be set to a monthly seclude like this one, but will come out as its finished, adding lore and character development to our two lovely FNG's**

 **More on this story, If you enjoyed, please feel free to leave a review or follow, I greatly appreciate all input into the story and feel free to PM any daunting story related questions and I'll get back to you.**

 **I also want to thank everyone on the almost 500 views, It's such a good feeling to see that someone is reading the story, You guys are the best!**

 **I guess that will be all from me this month~ oh wait, should put a little 'celebration' of my birthday back on the 11** **th** **, (there no need for condolences, I've had plenty of years of people feeling that it must have been an awful day for a birthday)**

 **I'll leave that there, As Always,**

 **Semper Fi**

 **LoyalODST Aka William**


	10. Ch9 Research Base Ambush

**Welcome back to Brothers in arms: Blood Brothers, Please remember the OC's of Carnage are TheArizona's, While any new characters are my own, AN at the end**

 **Microsoft holds the copyright to the Halo Franchise**

Research Base Ambush

July 21st, 2550

One Day's slipspace travel from the Research outpost

Gunnery Sargent Jack Price

I had awoken four days prior to now, It gave William all the time he needed to tell his story, or at least what he wanted to tell me. I had him take the last day of the trip in the tube, As much as the kid loves space, he's not a big fan of the common way to travel through it, he often says the Cryo gives him weird dreams but likes to clarify that they are weird to him, saying that they are 'too normal' and 'oddly uneventful', I think its just he hates having to throw up when he wakes up, I know most people really hate that.

Pacing around the nearly empty ship, with Mandy and the ships lights in low power mode, made the ship eerily lit and astonishing quiet, I've never gotten used to the silence, and the way even my lightest footfalls echo down the corridor, the stairwells creaked and groaned, The only reason I stuck around after sending William back to sleep was to do a lap of the ship in the dim yellow lighting, when I returned to Cryo an hour had elapsed, Normally I would read a chapter of this old paperback I kept in my personal stuff, but I didn't really want to head back up to the bunk room, so I got myself ready for the tube and crawled in its cold embrace was uncomfortable as always but I knew that tomorrow was important and going to be very busy, I could feel it.

\- the next day, T minus 1 hour until reentering subspace -

We had awoken and prepped for a boarding action, Whatever happened to that outpost- We need to know what happened, we shot the breeze in the hangar waiting for the pelican's crew, the time ticked by quickly enough.

The order came in swift "Get aboard T-Minus 5 'til Sub." The pelican Pilot dropped the ramp and tilted his head into the hold, 2 Marines lugged in 2 M247's, Followed by two Marines Toting an armload of ammo boxes, Another three marines climbed in, we followed up Myself, Dmitri, William and two of the Marines took our handholds, ready to be deployed.

-Meanwhile on the bridge-

"T-Minus One Minute, Captain," Mandy said following it with a quiet countdown

"Bring weapons online as soon as we're out of slip, I want to be ready for anything," Davis said from his command chair

"Aye," the Weapons Officers said in tandem, readying their fingers

" .One." Mandy's countdown ended and the Ship pierced its way back into normal space, Followed by the rest of the fleet moments later. "Sir, Station 15 kilometres out, Bringing it onto screens"

The Station appeared on the screen, and so did Six other objects.

"SIR! 6 Ships of unknown origin, They are scrambling to engage!" Mandy Paused for a half moment "One further contact, Covenant CRS class light cruiser and- INCOMING"

Six plasma torpedoes erupted from the ship and darted towards the battle group

"Brace for emergency maneuvers, and get that boarding party out of the hangar!"

\- Back in the hangar -

The Magnetic clamps released, and the pelican shot towards the exit, and we quickly changed course away from the Midsummer Night, We were barely away from the vessel before it jerked down and away, and a moment later a vibrant purple plasma streak passed by.

Over the Comms came a concerned voice "Raiders, Kig-yar Raiders, They'll close the distance then fire their weapons"

"All Craft This is Vice Admiral Viktor Romel, Disperse, Make your shots count, and light them up!" The Vice Admiral called

seconds later Archer Missiles salvo's swarmed from the battle group, as they started to maneuver away from one another. the Phoenix deployed 4 longswords.

"Longswords keep the banshee's off of our boarding crew" An Officer called

"On it Command" A pilot replied before opening up on one of the 11 banshee's on route towards us

As much as I tried to keep my eyes on the battle, every evasive maneuver made me miss more of it, The constant shifting of the ship made it even more difficult to see anything.

"Closing on station, 10,000 Meters and closing," The pilot said

I saw a purple explosion off the stern end of our craft "Five more, Just be carefu-" The voice was cut off, by a vibrant Yellow explosion

"Saber lead is down, Saber 2 taking command"

the Radio chatter had reached a high point, with commands and acknowledgements "Clear, Switch to secure comms" The Mission command in local comms

I switched to the silent channel before several more joined the link.

"Prepare for Vent, repeat prepare for vent," the MC said

14 variants of 'Clear, or ready' were muttered

"all clear MC, Vent us," I said waiting for the popping hiss of depressurization, which soon followed

"2,000 Meters," the Pilot said, moments before a red light turned on and all the seat restraints opened, the entire cabin stood up, Weapons at the ready"

"Hangar is sealed, Readings show its depressurized, Going hot" the Co-Pilot said, right before four bursts of the chin gun echoed through the ship's plate and into our legs, We passed through the now open hangar door in silence, and the pelican turned and its rear door lowered, the entire hold exited and scanned for enemies, there were none... but there were bodies, I brushed one of the lifeless humans aside.

"Artificials' off, Watch your step, and turn your mag boots on" I said turning my boots on with a firm 'Ka-thunk' to the floor, The Two M247's were set up to guard the hangar any Covie's that tried to get in, the other three Marines resealed the hangar door and took up defensive positions.

"Remember, Clear hostiles and rescue any survivors, And if we can get the base's defences online, from what it looks like the researchers here weren't able to get them up before the Covie's boarded"

"Carnage, Lets move" I said waving Connors to me and we left the hangar in two columns, the rooms adjacent to the hangar were airlocks they cycled quickly and soon we were in an air-filled environment, we cleared room to room, through laboratories, with experiments free floating in the lacklustre gravity, we approached a Comms terminal and Alexis and McFee got to work trying to get the station's Comms up.

Connors and William guarded the hallway, making sure no one could sneak up on us. "Gunny," William said nearly silent pulling Connors back into the room, "two Jackal's far end of the hall, One Grunt at the other end"

"take them down, quietly" I responded

"We don't have suppressors Gunny, we shoot and they'll hear us" William leaned around the corner

I paused, he's right if they shot the bastards would know we're here "Can you get close"

"Neg, Gunn~" he stopped talking, as he grabbed the patrolling Unggoy, pulling it into our room and stabbed it before it could call out. "that was too close" I watched him take its weapon, and hefted the weightless body, further into the room. the two Jackals barked and chirped something that was likely an order, when the reply didn't come back they started down the hall, towards us, they slowed at the doorway and one stuck its long head through the door, William brought his blade down through it, and tried to catch it's body as it recoiled, the other saw its headless partner and squawked as it turned to run, Connors in a second of 'now or never' shot the Jackal with his sidearm, its thick purple blood splattered down the wall.

"What the fuck, We were supposed to be quiet, THAT was the opposite of quiet" William said in a hushed shout

"It was going to get others, we didn't have a choice," Connors said to attempt to justify his action, picking up its plasma pistol, and clasping it to his belt.

I turned to the two working on the console "you got one minute before we have to bail"

"I. almost. GOT IT!" Alexis said as the terminal lit up, and a spike of static and for a moment the air went dead

I picked up the mic and spoke clearly into it "Survivors, This is Gunnery Sargent Jack Price, we are here to rescue you, If you can hear this, Tune your radio's to the Alpha-Sigma channel and report in your location, and your situation, Repeat; If you can hear this, Tune your radio's to Alpha-Sigma channel and report your location, and situation."

I put the mic down on the terminal and took up my weapon

"This is Cpl. Petit, We are in the Medical wing, uh, C-deck, there are 10 of us here, We've barred the door, I don't think they have found us, so we should be safe for a while longer" A younger man said over the comms

"This is Sargent Johannes, I have three of the base personnel, in Engineering A-deck, There Covie's are crawling all over this area, They might find us soon," A coarse man's voice said calmly

Next was a harsh whisper "This is Doctor Issac Brown, and I'm on E-deck, There was about 30 of us, but they found them, and I think I'm the only one left, They're scouring the rooms, I don't know how much longer I can hide"

I switched to the mission channel "Mission control, We have three groups of survivors as of this moment, totalling at 15, Do we have the capacity for them" I asked

"Clear- we do have a second pelican in the bay, however, we don't have the necessary crew to pilot it," MC said in a slightly sombre tone

I tapped William's shoulder "find out what Dr Brown's role was, I hate to say it but we need to know how valuable he is" I told him before returning to my comm "I surmise with a little guidance that One of us could assist in the piloting of it, I've flown a falcon a few times"

"Ah, Neg, Gunnery Sargent, that would put both crafts at a distinct disadvantage, We can't risk that"

"Well you better find a way to get everyone off this station by the time we clear it, or your on the short list" I grit my teeth

the comm was quiet "Aye, Will do, Clear"

on the other side of the room, William had upped the mic "Dr Brown, this is Sargent William Goodwin, I have a question to ask you"

a moment passed "yes, yes, but please ask it quietly, they are nearby"

"What did you research here?" William asked quietly

The man stifled a shout "Wha- What kind of question is that! ... I, I worked on Shield harmonics, we were testing them on the Mako Corvette on I-deck~"

"Thank you, Doctor, Please stay calm, We are on our way, Hold tight," William said putting down before looking up to me "Shields, Ship shields, Sounds important... Me and Connors could swing by and pick up the good doc before returning"

I grabbed his shoulder "Take no unnecessary risks, you both come back alive or so help me god will I kill you in the next life"

"We have to secure that info if its any good... or destroy it, we all know protocol," He said somberly

"No. Unnecessary. Risks. Understood?" my clasp on his shoulder tightened. a good three seconds elapsed before his acknowledgement light piped green, then off as he pulled away, he approached Connors and jutted his head in a 'lets go' motion, which they both left promptly

"We hit up the four on A-deck, and swing up to C-deck, then to the hangar, if Connors and William don't make contact by then, we will head to E-deck to assist," I said before reading my weapon

"MC to Clear, Repeat MC to Clear, the CRS Cruiser has turned back towards the station, you gotta make this quick, or they will be all over us"

"Understood" I turned to my team "Double time, Quietly" before gesturing out the door and we filed out

\- Meanwhile with William and Connors. (Williams Pov) -

We had descended down two decks, which kinda made no sense, because The deck we were just on had four levels, and the next only had one, Whoever made the deck system clearly didn't know jack shit about labeling, after another five flights of stairs we reached 'E'-deck, and started looking for the good doctor.

"Dr Brown, Where on E-deck are you," I asked with no response

"well, keep your guard up, he's aught to be here somewhere" Connors said quietly before taking out an optical cable and wiggling it around the corner, and right next to the back of a Jackal leaning against the wall, who was eating... something, Connors made sure the Jackal was alone before taking it out with his Knife, and he shook the purple goo off, some of it refusing to come off "One down... umpteen billion to go"

"Now's not the time for jokes." I said before returning to the mic "Dr Brown, Where are you?"

"I, I, I'm-'m in room E-247, I think one of the scary ones might have seen me"

"Short and pudgy or talk and lanky"

"no, no, the tall lizards, uh, oh, the E-e... Elite! an Elite, _it_ had to be"

I stopped Connors and took him into a side room "Brown, say's he's an Elite, we don't have the firepower to take more than one of those"

I saw him un-slinging his M90 "One buck shot of this, and a clip of yours, done"

"Brown, What colour of armour did it wear," I asked

"R-red"

"A Major... Alright, stay put" I said before snapping my weapon to ready position, after hearing things falling in the room over, Connors had his weapon up and ready too, we slowly moved forward and pushed into the room, and it was empty, or we thought it was until I heard whimpering from under one of the big tables, I crouched and found a woman, her left leg was torn to shreds and her right one was gone below the knee, and she had wounds to her abdomen "We got a live one!" I said in a hushed shout lifting her up onto the table after sweeping everything off of it, I took her overcoat and started to make tourniquets, for her legs, and 'bandaged' her stomach

"Scale of one to ten?" Connors said somberly

"How the Ffffff~" I finished tying one of the tourniquets off "~am I suppose to know"

"well you just did that, I probably wouldn't have thought of that"

"Basic first aid?"

"I didn't do all that good at it"

"then Watch the doors, I've no clue what to do now"

"We do have the all knowledgeable Doc"

"Stein! oh you clever bastard~ Stein, Repeat Stein, I need your help" I said in a serious tone trying to not sound panicked

A brief moment of silence made me tense up "Yeah?"

"After Tourniquets what do I do?" I asked intensely

"Whoa, Whoa, Whats the inquiry, and where," a quiet yet angry Jack asked 'what injury'

"We found a woman, She's missing a leg and the other was bleeding profusely, and a light would to the abdomen, I stopped the bleeding in her legs and what I could with her stomach"

"Next would be getting her to the ships hospital, C-deck is medical, but I HIGHLY doubt we have doctors here," Stein said, from how he sounded he was pacing or moving with the group

"I-I but what about the others?"

Steins voice changed to a harsher tone "You can't save everyone, Save the ones you can if I've learned anything in my years, THAT is the most important thing because if you try to save everyone you'll end up saving no one"

A cold pang ran through me, and I stood in near silence over my 'patient', and I took her hand in mine "I will get you out of here" I tightened my grip, as I watched her weakly nod, I turned to Connors, and he spoke

"Don't you even fucking think of it, I'm not leaving you alone down here"

I shook my head "You feeling strong, I need you to carry her"

he stood next to me and gave me a look "Okay..." and I helped him get her 'piggybacking' on him and I lead them out into the hall, and down the corridor towards the 200's, slowly passing room by room, scanning every offshoot, every windowed room slowing down at the 240's

"I hear something approaching" Dr Brown whined into his comm, "Stop!" he said, causing me to pause and raise my weapon "247, I'm in here"

I pushed the door open and Found the good doctor laying under a collapsed desk, I pulled Connors inside and closed the door. "Do you know anything about medicine?" I asked him

"I-I, no," he said quietly "but the Medi stations, there's bio-foam in there, if... it could work"

"do you know where the nearest one is?"

"I think I do..."

"Can you use this" I held up my M6

"I-I... I can shoot one, bu-but never at a living thing before, just the targets at the range" Issac said nervously

"well today is either a good day, or your worst one" I said putting it in his hand before giving him three of my clips "I mean unless you want to carry her" I pointed to Connors passenger

"N-no thank you, I get~ weak around blood" He held back a dry heave

"alright to the Medi station!" I said starting out the door, and turned the corner, at the end of the hall standing in his Crimson red armour stood the Elite Major, He snarled and ignited his Energy Sword. I took up a combat stance and activated my shield gauntlet "Come get me Mother Fucker"

Connors gave me a quick look of worry before closing the door.

 **Hows that for a Cliffhanger, Both serious and kinda funny... In my humble opinion**

 **So same rules apply, Feel free to follow, or favourite the story, Reviews are always welcome, and highly sought after (tell me where I can improve or tell me where I did good. All I really have is my two friends TheArizona and Supreme Commander telling me such... So more is always welcome)**

 **Quick thanks to everyone who comes and reads this we've almost hit 600 story views, which is really nice to see when I come about to write more of this**

 **Right; last months Announcement of the side series, That is still in the works, I wish I could go into more details but have to keep my cards hidden.**

 **I think that's all for this month, be sure to stop by around the 28** **th** **of next month to see the next chapter**

 **As always,**

 **Semper Fi**

 **LoyalODST Aka William**


	11. Ch10 The Duel

**Welcome back to Brothers in arms: Blood Brothers, Please remember the OC's of Carnage are TheArizona's, While any new characters are my own, AN at the end**

 **Microsoft holds the copyright to the Halo Franchise**

* * *

The Duel and the Mako

July 22nd, 2550

On board the besieged research base- A-deck

Gunnery Sargent Jack Price

We had cleared out a portion of A-deck and recovered the survivors when William and Connors had called us with their questions for Stein, I was upset with the two of them for getting me worried, but I still trusted them to avoid risks. we carved our way up to C-deck and begun to clear rooms when a reluctant sounding Connors called me on the comms

"Um... Hey Gunny" He started

"Connors, whats the four-one-one"

"I know you said no unnecessary risks... But the risks found us, we have a Sangheili down here, And...~" Connors was interrupted by Issac

"The other one of your guys is fighting it!" he shouted

"The fuck do you mean _He's_ Fighting it? Alone!?" I shouted, I saw Alexis stop as I said that

"We were just about to head out to the Medical station, and once he left the door, the thing showed up and I closed it, I'd be out there but I'm carrying wounded"

"William fighting an Elite alone?" Alexis' voice said as she placed a hand on my shoulder

I angrily pounded the table with a fist "Yeah, the SOB's going to get himself killed"

Alexis turned on a dime and started to run, I chased after her, I slowed as she ran around the corner, so I shouted: "You can't just run off to go help them, this place is crawling in Covie's!"

she ran back around the corner, she dropped, and slid backwards with her rifle up "Minors!"

Two blue armoured Elites charged around the corner, straight into the ten of us, the first one went down in a hail of bullets as Ander's Sniper punched a hole into the second one, It wavered and fell, The squawks of Jackals, and the squeals of grunts, seemed to come from all directions.

"Well... they defiantly know we're here now," one of the Marines said, kicking one of the Elites

"Mission Control, change of plans, After we find the survivors on this floor we are going to find the rest of my team, Then we should be heading back to you"

"aye, understood Clear, awaiting further updates"

"Alright men, time to find our survivors and get up to E-deck"

A quick round of nods and we started our search again, while being on high alert for any Covenant forces, we soon found our group of survivors, They had taken up a hiding spot in one of the larger labs, they only had three marines with them, the rest were scientists, except for one small child, around six years old

"He was separated from his mother when this all went down... and we couldn't just leave him." One of the marines stated ruffling the kid's hair

I took a knee next to him "we will find your mother, if we have the time, Okay?"

He nodded enthusiastically

"Good man-" I stood up "We have to go to E-deck, We have some more of our people up there, and have to retrieve them~" The station rocked and most of us lost our footing, a whir filled the corridors as I felt pushed into the floor and the air start to circulate

"the gravity's back?" Dmitri said getting back to his feet

"looks like it," McFee said with a pause

We made sure everyone was alright before starting towards E-deck

\- a few minutes prior, on E-deck (William's POV) -

My shield lit up the hall way, the Elite roared again, I reached for my sidearm and my hand met an empty holster 'I gave my pistol to the Doctor..', I fumbled for a second reaching for the plasma pistol slung on the back of my belt, I raised the weapon and shot the charging Elite, the energy licked its shields, and I raised my shield to block its sword, the two met with a shrill screech, I overcharged the Plasma pistol behind my shield as the Elite continued its assault, I let lose the bolt into the Elites abdomen and its shields flickered and failed, with an aggressive roar it knocked the weapon from my hand and proceeded to plant a strong kick to my chest it sent me careening off to the far side of the hall, The Elite turned away

"I'm not done with you!" I said before heaving in a breath

The Elite paused, turned back to me, and spoke under its breath before reproaching me, lifting me up off of the ground by my left arm and in a percussive gravely voice said "You, humans, are pitiful creatures, you don't even give up when you've been beaten" The sharp sound of an energy sword followed and I fell to the ground with a _'Ka-Thunk'_ The Elite paused and turned its sight to its now missing arm, it Howled in pain as I rolled away and got to my feet, my sword illuminating the right side of my body.

"We Humans have one thing on creatures like you... _resolve and a iron will_ , we won't break, not to you, not to anyone~" I heaved another breath "~you might be bigger than me, stronger than me, and scarier than me, but that doesn't mean I cant fight you- And win" I said reigniting my shield, and I paused hearing gunshots on the levels above.

The Elite still reeling from his injury, took up its blade and yelled out in Sangheili before charging me once again, a few ear-splitting clashes of energy on energy, The station suddenly rocked separating our clash and I could feel the pull of gravity again, We re-engaged with a flurry of attacks, I had managed to get a shallow strike into the back of his combat harness, more importantly it's shield generator, and it slowly started to fail,

Suddenly from the room I left Connors and Issac in, I heard Connors shout "NOW" as he and Issac charged out of the room into the hall, Connors sprayed the Elite with his MA5, and the Elite pushed me away as its shield collapsed, the Elite roared at them, Issac took up aim, fired one round, and the Elites blood splattered across my visor, the Elite fell on top of me as the last of the air expelled from its throat in a horrid whisper-like sigh.

I raised an arm around the dead Elite "little help", I heard the two of them jog over and they pulled the thing off of me, Connors gave me his hand and he helped me to my feet, and we shortly returned to the room, and Connors went to go lift our patient, but Issac stopped him

"I'll take her, you two... are much better with these things" he handed my pistol to Connors who then handed it

off to me, and I placed it in its holster and gave him a slight nod

"alright, to medical then," I said before pausing "I still don't know where that is" I looked to Issac

"right... this way" He pointed down a corridor and we started off in that direction

\- A few minutes later -

"We should be getting close now," Issac said looking up at the signs above the doorways "ah here it is" he stopped pointing to a door ahead of us

I took the lead and approached the door, and opened it, a near-miss burst of MA5 round made me reel back and fall over

Connors instinctively pulled me away from the door by the back of my armour, and bellowed in a low earthy, slightly panicked tone "ODST, ODST"

"shit Sarge you almost shot our own" a younger man said from inside the room

A man with a more gravelled tone spoke out "Coming out!" a moment later a beefy marine exited the room, checked all three corridors and turned his head to us "In!" before he took a knee continuing to check the corridors

Issac entered with the wounded woman, and Connors helped me to my feet and we entered together, the Marine soon followed and closed the door

"We didn't think any others were still left, and I was making sure to defend our own" he paused "five marines, myself included, twenty Civ's in the back rooms"

I took his shoulder "Your priorities are in the right place trooper" I let out a little nervous chuckle "I needed the close shave anyways"

Static filled my ear _"You better be safe, I swear to god"_ Jack sounded angry

"I'm good- might have a bruise and a story, but yeah I'm good"

" _I said no risks, what the hell?"_ He continued

"Um, I mean, we didn't plan that, shit happens" I said in a semi mumble

" _alright, where are you?"_ He asked

"Medical, E-deck's clinic, its nothing fancy, but good news, bad news"

" _don't play this with me, bad news first"_ he stated in a stern tone

"we have 25 more bodies to get off station"

" _and the good?"_

"I know how to get everyone off, and help the fight"

" _you're not serious about that... are you?"_

"we have a Mako and its armed, plus, I think we could crew it"

" _did you hit your head, us piloting a Corvette?"_

"that's the plan, we don't have enough space on the pelicans for this many people"

" _you're bloody crazy... I'm in"_

"That; was way faster than I planned to convince you" The static returned, and Issac approached me

"I have the Schematics in my documents, If we could access them you could find out everything you need"

I walked over to the little holo-table and brushed all the things on it, onto the floor "Load it up here, we'll need to study it"

suddenly a small figure of a woman appeared, her figure glitched when she moved "P-P-pulling u-u-up, Ma-a-ko Sch-sch-em's"

Issac looked at the AI "She shouldn't be here, she should have purged herself during the protocol... unless the process was interrupted"

"Dr. Seven-n-ty n-nine p-p-point e-e-e-eight per-per-percent comp-plete~" her voice cleared up for a moment "Protocol interrupted via security breach in medical~" she started to glitch again "~E-e-e-e-Dec-k" her portrait blinked out

"someone in here paused the deletion of the stations AI... If the covenant got anything out of her... they could find the way to Earth" I said placing my hands on the table, right before the Mako popped up in front of me

"Sir, Dr Kitchener was acting up earlier, lots of mumbling to himself might want to ask him," one of the younger Marines said

"Thank you~" I stood up "~I'll go find him" and I left the four of them standing there

"Doctor Kitchener? Please come forth, I have some questions" I called into the back rooms

"He's back here, but he's sleeping" A mid-aged woman's voice called back

I walked into the room and there were three people, an older gentleman sleeping, a woman in her mid-30's, and a younger woman in her late 20's "Kitchener?" I raised my hand to the sleeping man

"Y-yes," the older woman said with a slight nod, she was rubbing the younger woman's shoulders

As I approached the man, the young woman lunged out and grabbed my arm "have you- have you seen my baby!?"

I flinched to her action "N-no ma'am I haven't seen any children aboard"

she withdrew and curled up into the fetal position, the older woman looked up to me "she got separated from her 6-year old son early on, she's not taking it well, its not good for her, the stress might make her loose the one she's carrying"

I gave her a slight nod, and turned back to Kitchener, In his hand was an AI chip, slowly pulsing magenta light, my eyes focused on the slow pattern it followed, I reached for it and pulled on it slightly, as I pulled it up, Kitchener followed, his eyes locked onto my visor

"MY FILES... oh, Y-you're not one of the men out there?" he sounded confused

"please come with me Doctor, I have some questions" I said taking a step back the chip between our hands

"yes, of course" he stood up and followed me to a empty room, I closed the door and held out my hand

"give it to me" I said in a firm tone

he looked at me, and reluctantly handed the chip over, I popped my helmet off slightly, and placed the chip into the slot in my neural lace, and pushed my helmet back on, as the cold chill flooded my head, it felt like a dozen voices talking before they noticed I was there, I stood still as I processed all of this information, I grabbed Kitchener by his collar "What the hell is all of this, You risked the covenant getting the location of earth- for... THIS"

"This research is vital to human survival" He said weakly

"Human survival, isn't based on genetic manipulation, and butchering our own with failed experiments, its boots on the ground and unwavering unity" I hissed

"Say that to the Covenant, to the Insurrectionists, and failed missions. You know that One Spartan is worth a Battalion of ODST and twice as effective, IT WAS A RISK WE NEEDED TO TAKE" he hissed back

I let him go, as a quiet cold voice spoke to me _'he may not be 100% right, but neither are you, we still need to find a way to win against this covenant, and survive... Sometimes morals have to be abandoned to make it, I did it, you did it, they did it, Who's the monster, who is just, who is right, who is wrong, you even said to me that killing was wrong, but yet you kill to survive, your purpose is to survive, if not for you then for the billions who need someone who can to lead them out of this darkness... Don't worry about it right now, I've taken a copy of everything, we can now quickly make sure the protocol is followed, also this chip, we could still use it, ask to keep it, even mention 0, section 3 has nothing when it comes to that...'_ and she faded out

"Under jurisdiction of ONI-0 I must withhold the chip and its contents to be given to my detachment head"

"You're ONI, Makes sense that at least one Spook would be on this station to make sure things like that didn't get out, Okay, you win, we both have to keep our mouths shut, or we won't exist by next month"

I open the door and let him out, I look to my hands, they were slightly trembling 'I need to keep my composure, I'm not a spook, just a slave to a contract, and a failed experiment in my own right' after thinking to my self alone I exited the room and sat at the desk that the Mako was on and I stared at the image for a long while, Jack's team arrived and I a barely even acknowledged they were here, I needed to figure out how to get the ship moving and help our fleet, Jack talked about how the fleet pulled back, bringing the majority of the enemy with them, one ship had returned to the station but hadn't docked so we still had time, The Mass driver on the top was still there, and we knew it was armed because it was one of the major parts of the defense grid, and the engines were never removed, the main thing was getting it lose from the station with being obliterated by the light cruiser

"we do have some slip-space probes, it might cause enough of a distraction" Issac said from over my shoulder

"Good eye, I know what we have too do" I said before quickly removing the AI chip, sliding it into the terminal, imported the station's AI and then reactivated Cole's Protocol, purging all data from the stations stores, and reinstalled the chip into my neck, the cold flush was immense "Jack, Contact the pelican get them to skirt the station around to the Mako, they can dock inside once we arrive, then we can launch the probes, that will hopefully give us enough time to give the ship a shakedown and get her away"

"that's a lot of hopeful thinking, don't you think"

"Its our only real option, we aren't abandoning anyone, we were told to get everyone off"

"We were told to secure the station"

"if we could have, we would have already, we have no time before that ship decides that waiting for reports is taking two long, and ether A. drop more troops, or B. destroy the station"

Jack mumbled to himself, before clasping a hand to his ear "Clear to Mission control, Change of plans..."

"Connors, how do you feel your aim is" I quipped

"why? you have the team sniper right here" he patted Anders

"Ok, Anders how do you feel about shooting the big gun?" I said with a slight head tilt

"wait, wait, I change my mind" Connors said stepping forward

"Alright then, When we board I need you to be ready to get on that big thing and give that ship a good slap" I gave him a pat on the shoulder, I watched Anders raise a finger in protest but he lowered it "you, my friend get the other one"

"There is two Onager's on that thing?" Anders looked at me confused

"You upset that there's two? they might not be as good as a MAC, but they are all we got for smacking the Covies, I mean we have the 2 M910 batteries but those are more anti-fighter than for bigger ships, and from the file the missiles were removed, as well as all on board vehicles, so the darter hangars should be able to hold the pelicans"

"If it's all we got, it's all we got, plus I'm not fussing about the big guns, just though you were going say that there was only one"

"just be ready for when we get out there, Okay?"

Anders nodded and left, Jack approached, "they will launch once the doors are open, they agree that you are crazy"

"Duly noted" I responded, I started to lead as I saw the 6-year old kid, "Can you take him to the back rooms, I think his mother is back there, and..." I shook my head slowly

"on it, just tell me when we're getting ready to head out"

"aye" I responded again, and he turned and lead the kid to the back room to see if the young woman was his mom 'Hey, um, could you try to recompile the stations AI and see if you can fix her...'

' _I could, but you seem to have... Forgotten my name, haven't you'_

'I- yes, yes I have' I thought sombrely

 _she giggled 'after I'm done I'll reintroduce the two of us, four years is a long time for a human to remember something as odd as a name of something they thought they destroyed'_

'it is' I took a seat, 'it is, isn't it?'

* * *

 **So that's this months instalment of BIA, some battling, some 'deep' thoughts...**

 **If you liked or have any criticism feel free to leave a review, and if you want to see further instalments feel free to favourite the story.**

 **For anyone wondering what Mako model I am using as reference, I am using the model made for 'Sins of the Prophets', since all of their models are amazing.**

 **Besides wishing every an early Christmas / holiday season, this should be all I have for this month.**

 **Be sure to stop by next month for the next upload**

 **As always,**

 **Semper Fi**

 **LoyalODST Aka William**


	12. Ch11 The Void Shark

**Welcome back to Brothers in arms: Blood Brothers, Please remember the OC's of Carnage are TheArizona's, While any new characters are my own, AN at the end**

 **Microsoft holds the copyright to the Halo Franchise**

* * *

The Void Shark

July 22nd, 2550

On board the besieged research base- E-deck

Sargent William Goodwin

After a few minutes of thought, and assigning people to tasks for the Mako's shakedown, I then gathered everyone in the main room, for final instructions before we were to head out, It was a tight fit to get the nearly fifty people into the room, I stood up on a chair and cleared my throat

"Alright everyone, In around three minutes we will be heading down to I-Deck, Once there; everyone who has somewhere to be should get their asap, everyone else will hunker down in the area's we talked about... If all of my calculations are right, we could get the ship free and away within five minutes, we just have to hope that our distractions and shields hold up until we are away. Any questions?"

the crowd stirred for a moment "What if they notice us before the ship is able to move"

"Fair question" I answered "Then it comes down to our shields and luck"

"Luck?" a few people said

"I know it sounds stupid, but there is no other way to get 50+ people off this station otherwise, and I don't plan on leaving _**anyone**_ behind"

they stirred again before accepting my plan

"When we get out there I need 4 columns of 12, Marines, I want you on the outer columns, and at the front and back," I said before hopping down from the chair, and everyone quickly gathered their gear.

We made sure the hallways were clear before starting towards I-deck at first I was expecting much more resistance getting to the Mako, but we didn't run into anything, and when we got to the docking adapter for the Mako it was still locked, So I had the Marines at the rear to hold the corridor as we got it open.

The doors opened with a harsh sound of metal on metal, the doors opened and the ship's lights started to click on, we quickly boarded and resealed, then locked the doors, I started to the bridge as I saw the group split up and start running to where they needed to be.

I was the first to the bridge, and I ran up to the commanders chair, and slipped the AI chip from my head to the terminal, the pinkish purple form of the station's AI appeared "Ready Captain" its two voices said in unison as they gave me a salute, I stared for a second before typing on my console, and got the hangar doors opened

"Pelicans get moving, we are starting the shakedown" Jack spoke into his comlink, before turning back to his position at one of the four terminals surrounding my chair.

"Onagers' Online, M910's Online, and... One Hyperion class Nuclear device in the hold" The AI said

"A nuke? How wasn't that on the manifest!" I paused "get it ready for deployment, we might just need it."

"Aye" The Two tones spoke

Three small thuds echoed through the station's connector, "Covenant cruiser turning to engage the probes, Activating stations defences in 7" Issac said from a terminal behind me

"docking clamps released, reactors spooling up, all weapons loaded, and pelicans loaded into the bay, Ready for explosive decoupling" The twin AI said firmly

the dull thud's of the station's defensive emplacements firing at the cruiser, "Now!"

A sudden Pang ran through the hull of the ship, "the ship is clear, accelerating to engage"

once we were clear from the station's supports, I got a good look at the cruiser, it was double our length, and was much better armed if covenant trends held up.

"Drop the Nuke, set on remote detonation, and a delay, then give the covenant a slap"

the nuke was given a small boost towards the station, as we turned back around, and started back towards the station, Connors Mass driver fired, the round soared into the enemy, and exploded when it impacted their shield, the silver field flickered, we rolled the ship and Anders fired his driver at the enemy but it also impacted the shield, we opened up with our M910's the anti-fighter guns made the cruiser's shields look like rain on a lake, the next driver round hit at an odd angle and it ricocheted and left a vibrant streak in the void, like a meteor, the following round punctured the silver vale and left a crater in the cruiser's bulbous prow as it turned to engage us, it fired off its lasers, I had flinched as the laser hit our shielding, our shield shimmered for a second, and when it faded the enemy already has its plasma torpedoes already on route

"Brace for emergency thrusters!" I called through the ship comms, watching the torpedo's close in, we then were suddenly thrust upwards as the ship accelerated down away from the incoming torpedoes "Power to engines, close the distance to that cruiser!"

as we closed our distance the drivers kept hitting the enemies shielding, the few that made it by, hit and buckled the ship underneath

the ship rocked as another pair of lasers hit the shielding, which almost faltered "Shields are Redlining!" Issac reported in

"sir, I have done the necessary calculations to do a slip jump" The AI said breaking the still air

"you what?" I looked to the pedestal in front of my terminal

"you just have to press the button and then we jump away, the nuke should take out the cruiser, the station, all the enemies it holds, and any information left from the good doctors' work..."

I looked at the terminal 'detonate' flashed slowly "Crew brace for emergency slip-space jump"

"Where too?" Jack looked up at me surprised by what I just said

"I don't know yet~," I said pressing the button "Punch it"... Time seemed to slow as space appeared to boil in front of us before a blue tear ripped open and we started to pass through it, and what felt like a lifetime before we left it on the other side "where are we?" I asked

"well the station is over there" The AI pointed into the starscape before a flash of blue-white light lit up and dissipated "Our enemy should be gon~"

suddenly a purple circle expanded from just beyond weapons range, inside the circle was a void more black than anything I've ever laid my eyes on, the covenant cruiser exited the hole, its surface scared with a layer of black charred material, and we watched as its shield popped like a balloon in slow motion.

"Hit them" I repeated three times with a sense of urgency, my call was soon met with two ship-reeling shutters as the two mass drivers fired in near unison, which was soon followed by a stream of smaller rounds from the AA batteries

"Missiles would be good right about now!" McFee shouted from his station

'Yeah, No shit' I thought to myself, "Shield report!" I called to Issac

he sounded distressed "in the orange, I think if they hit us again they'll burn through"

I looked to the cruiser as it fired off two more plasma torpedoes "Evasive maneuvers!"

The ship lurched as we got under way, another pair of driver rounds stuck the enemy, both punctured through the ship, and smoke and plasma flames poured from the billowed from the underside of the ship, before the smoke flooded out of the puncture holes, the Mako rocked, when the first torpedo smashed into us, with a sound similar to shattering glass as the lights dimmed and Issac shouted "Shields are gone!" a moment before we were nearly thrown from our seats as the second torpedo hit us in the lowest decks.

"We're Hit, It was only a glancing blow, but we have depressurization in major sections of deck 5," Anders said wearily

I tapped my comms "good thing you're the only person on deck 5, Just a little space walk after the fight's done"

"Yeah, I guess," he said before pulling his trigger, his weapon echoed through the hull

"Now," I say looking to Alexis "Get us the hell out of here"

"Aye, full speed, attempting to break contact" she replied as the ship turned away from the enemy cruiser, we started to accelerate away from the enemy

The AI appeared on the terminal looking startled "Slipspace rupture detected!"

"Wha~ Where!" I sat forward in my seat

"Dead ahead, Go evasive!" The AI called as the notable blue tear in space appeared, and a UNSC Frigate exited the tear, and it only missed us because we rolled and yawed away from the ship, half an instant later, on all comms shouted a familiar voice

"Eat this you Son of a Bitch, FIRE!"

we watched the ships MAC fire and tore through the Cruiser's prow and punctured through the rear and it kept going, moments later the cruiser exploded in a vibrant blue-purple rupture

"Praise be, good to see you in one piece," Captain Davis said cheerily

"Good timing Cap' Now only if you did that like fifteen minutes ago, the station would still be intact," Connors said in a half joke

"We tried but those pickets kept us distracted" Mandy's warm voice said

"Where is the rest of the fleet," I asked letting out a sigh of relief

"Mopping up the last of the covenant, It seems that those were Kig-Yar privateers

"unless the Sangheili have stooped that low I don't think so, we met three of them in our journey," Jack said leaning back in his chair

The Captain let out a puzzled hum "to be frank, the only reason we knew you got off the station was an AI alerting us" he said slightly changing the subject

"I think the station's AI must have activated the self-destruct after it detected no humans left on board," I said slipping the AI out of the terminal and into my lace

"Mmm, It might have paid the ultimate sacrifice for the greater good" Mandy said quietly

the air sat silent for over a minute before a long-range com came through

"EDS, regroup at grid 579, by 390, by 15, you have half an hour," The Vice Admiral said in a slightly frustrated tone

'we're only a few grids off, it shouldn't take us all that long to get there' the AI's cold voices said in my head

"Set a course to that location and get us burning," I said calmly

 _\- after the battle group gathered at the rendezvous point -_

Victor called the fleet "Damage report"

"Light armour damage, loss of one fighter" the Commander of the UNSC _Last Breath_ reported

"depressurization on 3 decks, 30 casualties" The Commander of the UNSC _Templar_ reported

"light damage to the starboard engine pod" the UNSC _Vigilant_ reported

"Minimal damage" The CMA _Retribution_ reported

"Not a scratch" the UNSC _Liberty_ reported

"Clean slate" Davis reported

I took a deep breath "Minor damage to port engine pod, depressurization of the lowest deck"

The Vice Admiral sounded confused "Last ship, Who are you"

"remnant of the station sir, Currently you are speaking to Sargent Goodwin of the Midsummer Night"

"You have the station's personnel?" he asked

"Aye" I responded quickly

"Come get docked to the _Alexandria_ we will take the ship off your hands, Sargent"

"But- Aye Sir," I said sounding disappointed

"Got something to say?"

"Negative sir, coming about"

"We'll have her crewed, so don't you worry, we're not ditching her," He said to my slight surprise "She may prove herself useful as a 'heavy dropship' of sorts"

It didn't take us all to long to dock and get the Civilians off board and get Anders out of his little pocket, repair crews were already underway when we boarded the _Alexandria_ The admiral met us in person, His grey uniform bore the insignia of the ship; a crossed Crook and flail.

he looked us up and down "A strange group, indeed" he uttered cheekily

"Aye sir, sometimes doing the mission means doing something... unorthodox," Jack said looking as well postured as he could

"Who's crazy idea was it?" He asked

I raised my hand "we didn't have enough space on the pelicans, so I thought, if we got the Mako free, it'd be big enough and we could help the fleet"

"Seams fitting" He pointed out to the Mako, only now after we had gotten a good look at it did we read its name, UNSC _Unrelenting_ , "it fits your group too well if your records are accurate"

we all kind of paused to look at the little ship, as groups of Marines and ODST past us

"I guess it suits us~" I started

"Unrelenting Carnage!" Connors said like he had just figured out the answers to all of life's questions

"That took you too long," Dmitri said looking down at him from over his shoulder.

We shared a laugh, as a Smaller group of ODST pushed through us, I almost brushed it off as an accident as the lead Trooper turned back

"Frenchie!" he called, I grabbed Jacks shoulder before he could turn to face the trooper

"One day Jay you will meet a Frenchman who will deck you for that" I called back as he stopped and re-approached us

"You think you're better than me?!" He got up into my face

"Why would you think that it's not like I'm throwing insults" I uttered

"I could mop this whole deck with you" He threatened

I watched Alexis walk up behind him and grab him in a headlock "Come 'er you little shit" she said pulling him off of me

"L-let me go!" He said trying to escape her grasp

"now Jay, treat your brother nice" she gave him a little chuckle

"F-Fine" he stammered, she let him go "So~" His tone had completely 180'd, and greeted me with a hand to shake

I took it and spoke "you done, or are you going to explain"

"I'm done, but that doesn't mean I'm going to 'play nice' with you, you're still a dirty SOB"

"That's fair"

he glanced at the ship, then back to me "How many did you get out?" he asked somberly

"41" I replied equally as sombre

"At least it's better than 0," he said with a slight sigh

"yeah" I muttered

"And Jack, I'd like to apologize for last time, I didn't mean to drag you into family stuff"

Jack shook his head slightly

"I wish you luck," I said letting go of his hand

"I don't want your luck, one day it's going to go sour" he slapped my hand away and he walked away

"I really hate that guy," Stein said the back of the group

"Yeah... it gets worse the better you know him, there isn't a bright side under all that anger," I said looking at my hand

 _\- back aboard the Midsummer night -_

We had got back to the ship and rested up in the bunk room, we told stories when it came to my turn Jack turned to me and asked: "When I and Jay talked alone he insulted you on the basis of being gay, Where did he get that from?"

I rubbed my face in slight annoyance "Ok, So when I was younger, I was invited to a mixer, and I went to it- you know to have fun and let off some steam from collage, and after hours of drinking and playing games, it came down to truth or dare, and the group got me to admit I liked someone who was at the party, and later I was dared to- you know, do it with said person, and it happened- but those fucking ass-hats rerecorded it and made it public, smeared it across school, some of my brothers friends found out, and gave him that knowledge, ever since then, I've been gay to him, and because I refuse to say 'yes I'm gay' I'm a coward, and because I'm a history buff, he uses the insult of being a Frenchman as his word for coward because during the 20th century France had some poor reputations on the battlefield. and Nothing I do will change that to him"

a collective 'wow' came from the group

"Well, I mean there is more to it than that" Alexis said quietly

"There's nothing more that matters," I said with a glare

She seemed a little miffed that I scolded her "If you say so"

"you said we'd keep what happened then to ourselves," I said with a slight hiss

"I didn't say anything," she said

"Care to explain?" Jack asked

Almost Immediately Alexis said "that wasn't the only guy he slept with"

William threw up his hands "Fine! yeah, it happened a second time, but you can't play innocent here, you slept with him too!"

the rest of Carnage took a step back from the brewing argument

"Hey, I didn't mean to stir the pot," Jack said hands raised defensively

we turned to him "Its just bad memories, and a broken promise, the past is the past..."

Connors opened his mouth but closed it as Dmitri gave him a light cuff to the back of the head

"Maybe its time to take a trip to the freezer for the rest of the jump?" Anders said standing up

we paused "That is one of the best ideas I've ever heard of," I said before helping Alexis to her feet "it's just what we need"

* * *

 **So, um, that ending happened.**

 **Anyways I hope you enjoyed reading this months chapter of BIA, Please feel Free to leave a review or favourite, and please feel free to read the first chapter of my new story at:** **/s/12772545/1/The-Sargasso-Chronicle**

 **I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, and happy holidays**

 **Be sure to stop by for next months chapter**

 **As always,**

 **Semper Fi**

 **LoyalODST aka William**


	13. Ch12 Charred Remnants

**Welcome back to Brothers in arms: Blood Brothers, Please remember the OC's of Carnage are TheArizona's, While any new characters are my own, AN at the end**

 **Microsoft holds the copyright to the Halo Franchise**

* * *

Charred remnants

 _Date Unknown_

 _Location unknown_

William Goodwin

My eyes shot open as an abnormal cold washed over me, I was met with flashing red lights, I attempted to draw breath but was unable to, I began to panic as my lungs began to burn, the pod door opened in front of me and I clambered out and started to drift from my pod, I frantically looked around the room, but it wasn't right, this wasn't the Midsummer Nights Cryobay, my panic increased as I couldn't find anything it was unfamiliar, but I caught a glimpse of a small O2 tank across the room, I launched off of the pod, snagged the tank and brought the mask to my face and drew breath, The gas was as cold as ice nearly causing me to reject its salvation, after a few breaths I calmed down enough to get my head together, I noticed that I was clothed but not with the military garb I had expected, but with civilian clothes, I looked to the tank's gauges it read 43%, I drew a quick Exasperated breath at the fact I was wasting precious air, I launched over to one of the control panels and managed to get its info

 _['DEPRESSURIZATION' 'Life signs; 1']_

I looked around further... I knew this ship, I served aboard it over 8 years ago, I felt as I remembered the corridors like the back of my hand I soon found a viewport and looked out into the void, the stars looked like a clouded mess, and the world I was orbiting looked Skewiff, off and out of place.  
Suddenly a loud ear-popping sound of an atmosphere being returned to the ship, I was keeled over in pain as the thunderous sound of footsteps approached, I recoiled to my feet as the noise got closer and closer, I looked for anything to defend myself with as the sound became deafening, I turned as a horde of skewed, disfigured, and blurred humanoids poured in from the adjacent hallways, their faces twisted in horror the noise got louder and my sight got darker until everything went black and silent.

I shot up and collided with solid glass and as I looked around everything seemed normal, I focused on the cracked glass in front of me as the seals on my pod opened, I stepped out and fell to the floor, I noticed two figures run into the room

"we need to get him to medical" One said

"I'm fine" I mumbled

"You're bleeding heavily," the other said attempting to lift me

I brought a hand to my face, it was warm and wet, when I pulled my hand away a deep red covered my hand, the sight startled me slightly, the two men lifted me out and up to medical, they had only just got me into the bed when Mandy's avatar appeared on a pedestal

"What happened" her voice sounded concerned

"His vitals spiked, next thing we knew he was out of his pod and bleeding profusely," The First man said as two more people joined the room, One gave an 'oh goodness' look before running back out of the room before returning with more supplies

' _what exactly happened?'_ The AI in my head asked

' _A dream- no, nightmare, I'm still trying to understand what happened in it'_ I responded, Making minor adjustments to my heads position on behest of the medical staff.

~a few minutes later~

"you mentioned breaking the cryo-pod's glass... the Captain isn't going to be pleased to hear that one" Mandy said calmly from her pedestal

"I, I mean, It defiantly wasn't intentional, I think that's the first time I've ever heard of someone waking up from cryosleep without help from the outside"

"Well, you shouldn't be able to, either the pod malfunctioned, or my subroutines slipped up"

I exhaled harshly "I wouldn't beat myself up over it, If I was you"

Her avatar flickered "Beat myself up?"

"Figure of speech" I waved my hand

The air went quiet for a few minutes

"On occasion, I've heard you speak of Sargasso, the planet we are currently on route to, What happened to you there" her voice was quiet and monotone

"When I first joined up and got through boot camp, I was placed into the 313th Mobile infantry division, a subgroup of the 102nd Armored Battalion, shortly after that we were sent to engage Insurrectionist forces on... I don't remember where, we managed to take out the innies, but then the covenant showed up and this was the first time most of us had seen them. We were hit hard, the 102nd I mean, The 313th only lost fifteen, but the 316th and 318th were all but gone, We had been ordered to retreat and we got off-world... I keep thinking of all the ones who didn't, aftermath reports only said 800,000 Civilians were lost, but the number was nearly 3 times that I guess the report doesn't mention the ones left behind to die."

"you don't have to talk about it if it causes you distress" Mandy's voice warmed

"the 102nd didn't survive Sargasso, I only know of two people who got out, Me and Alexis. Its ether luck or a curse and honestly its beginning to feel like the latter"

I felt a cold wash over me, and Mandy flickered again "are you alright?"

I attempted to respond but the world went dark, and I felt myself fall off of the bed, but I didn't feel myself hit the floor.

~The following morning, POV: Jack Price~

I sat at the end of the medical bed, Still taking in the information "How'd he wake up"

"We still don't know, but it was so sudden and violent that he damaged his pod"

I watched him stir, and looked back over to the slips in my hand "Will he recover?"

"As far as I've been told, he should make a full recovery in a few days, although that gash, might leave a scar" Mandy answered

a faint beeping noise could be heard from William as he stirred again, the noise caught our attention and I walked over to him, a slow pulse of light emitted from his Neural lace, It was open and a small crystal chip sat on the bed, I picked it up and turned it in my hand, "this might hold something" I said standing up and walking over to Mandy's pedestal

she looked at it with a slight look of awe, And when I plugged it in, Her avatar shrunk and slid to the side allowing the second one to appear, It faded between pink and purple, its hands were on its head and it was on its knees, face against the ground, it was mumbling in at least a dozen languages, and like a glitch it's image stuttered and stabilized with it standing with its arms out, its fists clenched, it drew in its arms slowly as its color settled into a magenta, and for a few moments it appeared to be breathing, attempting to calm itself, When it opened its eyes it began to look around.

It pointed to me "Jack," It turned to Mandy "And Mandy" then it turned to William "Us... Me?" before looking back up to me

I looked to Mandy with an eyebrow raised

"Did they scan his head?" The other AI said looking at the two of us

"Yes," Mandy said looking puzzled

"Can you show me?" It asked

Mandy brought up the X-ray, and It looked like any other I had seen before, completely normal.

"No, that's not right, There should be more in there, I would know I put it there" it looked shocked

"Explain yourself," I asked

it paused and looked at us "I'm the AI that was in his head, the one he got before Sargasso, It doesn't make sense, I'm the one who did the surgery on him, There should be ranks of small data cores implanted inside his head, storage, active memory, and much more"

"It doesn't look like there is anything there," Mandy said looking through the individual frames

It looked to me "Put me back into his head"

I looked to Mandy before unplugging the chip, and the second avatar dissipated, I took the chip over to William and plugged it in, and almost instantly he sat up gasping, we watched as he tensed his fingers over and over, before standing up abruptly, and I caught him as he started to fall. his eyes turned to me, they were wide

"What did you do, shes acting frantically, looking for something," he said looking to the slides and started to move that way, I helped him, as he scanned it, "This isn't a normal brain, bring up the 3D model"

Mandy looked to him, and quickly brought up the model of his brain, he took a closer look to it and reached out and grabbed on to it, pulling a layer off of to look inside "This is my brain" Mandy looked closer at the internal model

"That... is a regular brain, then what is" She looked up to me holding the exterior 'shell'

"It is what they put in me, its bio-mechanical, A perfect fit around my brain, it somehow holds the storage that Illya was going off about"

a small sound of fanfare echoed from his lace and the AI's voice returned "You remembered my name!"

"How did you know this" Mandy said looking at him

"I- I didn't? How did I know that?" he sat down in a thinking pose, I watched his eyes dart around like he was reading a data pad at a quick speed

"William?" Mandy said waving her hand

"Found it, An encrypted file they must have made it just for such an occasion, it has Sec0 plastered all over it, so I shouldn't say anything about it"

Mandy removed all the models and slides, before looking to him again "Two questions, One; Shouldn't you be trying to rest, and two; What happened before you woke."

"I should be resting yes, but then this happened and before I woke, the first time in the pod, I've been replaying it, it was a nightmare of sorts, I mean like I couldn't breath, and everything was distorted, right before I woke up I saw twisted versions of people I knew, or saw, it looked like pain and terror, next thing I know I'm here"

I furrowed my brow in contemplation as I watched him think, and explain what was on his mind, and I was startled when a nurse entered the room suddenly

"What is he doing up!" She exclaimed

He raised a hand "I'm fine, just a little too eager to get up"

the nurse's expression changed "You still need your rest, so please, rest"

I watched him give a weak salute "As are doctors orders" before he got himself back onto the bed and sat it up to stay in the conversation, the nurse gave a slight sigh before leaving

I looked to Mandy "well if doctors orders stand, then we best be off, so you can get your rest"

His face soured a bit "Aw, fine, We'll talk tomorrow then?"

"Sure," I said walking up and clasping his shoulder, I then turned and walked out, and as I did, I saw the Captain approaching so I snapped to attention

"at ease," he said quietly before entering the room, And curiosity got the better of me, I got right outside the door and listened in "Quite a wake up"

"Well, as far as I've heard," William said

I head the chair getting moved "Well give me all the details you have" The Captain's voice said with a slight sternness

I felt a hand on my shoulder, It was the nurse from before, and she just jut her head down the corridor, I gave a slight sigh and left.

the ship was quiet, like, during a night patrol, it felt too quiet, I approached the bunk room, and opened the door, it slid open with a low hum, I entered the dark room and got into my bunk, looking at the bars holding up the bunk above me, and soon drifted to sleep

~A few days later, August 7th, 2550, POV: William Goodwin~

It had been a couple of days since they let me out of medical, I spent most of my free time training, the rest was spent reading or sleeping, I'd seen Jack on and off since they got him up, but Mandy seemed to keep him busy but that's alright, After the Captains and my chat I'm surprised I'm not busier.

"William, the Captain wants you on the bridge, The others will be up shortly to join you," Mandy said in a soft tone

"We're almost there aren't we?" I asked  
"aye" She responded

"Alright, I'll be right up" I said standing up and approaching the door, I let out a small sigh before leaving, and heading up to the bridge, when I arrived I was met to a full bridge, every station was manned, next to the Captain was Jack and Foster, I walked up slowly

"Fall in line," Jack said with a commanding tone so I stood behind him, slightly to his right side

"So what's thi~"

"In silence, Trooper" Jack's tone unchanging said

My face twisted into a confused glance to side to side, the door slid open and I heard a collection of footfalls approach and they fell in line quickly and quietly.

The Captain spoke "View screens", and a moment later they flicked transparent, My face soured as my eyes took in the sight, The Glassed World of Sargasso, in its full 'majesty', looking at it I could tell where cities once stood, where military complexes were and the debris of the fleet that stood in its defense.

I turned my head to Alexis, who had a similar look of disdain, before turning back to the sight, A light flickered on the holo-table

"Bring it up," Davis said in a stern tone, and then the face of the Vice Admiral appeared

"Another world scarred and barren, But our objective is still down there, we will be splitting the battle-group to scour those continents until we find it, This might take hours, days, weeks, or months, but we will get it done," Victor said with a straight face

Davis turned to us "You ten, will be leading our forces in their search, Carnage you will be split into two teams to cover specific locations that might yield something. the 829th will be searching over the wider region that those locations fall under, once the locations are searched you will be assisting the main group But be on your guard, just because that it has been four years since the battle here doesn't mean the covenant have pulled all their forces out when they left."

Things started to make more sense, Jack was kept busy so he couldn't spend his time thinking of what the worst could happen to his team, knowing that they'd be separated, I know that I would be spending every free second worrying.

Victor spoke again "If you do come across covenant forces to not engage unless engaged, and attempt to disengage if you get engaged, We're not here to fight a war"

I hastily took a step forward "What if we find civilians" My voice croaked as I tried to stop myself

Victor's turned stone-faced "You won't"

"I was here, I read the post-battle results, there was at least 800,000 people- OUR PEOPLE left here" I raised my voice

"Silence him," Davis said to Jack, who turned

"Unless you wish to spend the remainder of our mission in the brig, you are to remain silent" Jacks eyes were piercing

"Then get me before we leave for the surface," I said turning around, and loudly walking off, stopping just outside the door, Alexis's COM channel lit up, and I clicked it on, she didn't speak but I could still hear the conversation

"Without further interruptions... I will restate, No engaging the covenant if present and there will be no 'rescuing survivors' Our 'friends' in the _Millennium_ have already swept the system several times in the last four years, had there been people they would have been picked up already"

'If they had been here, wouldn't they have found the thing we're looking for' I thought in a hostile tone while walking down the flight of stairs, my pace hastened by the cohort of marines that joined me, but they continued down when I left the stairwell.

I soon reached the dorm room and sat in the corner, my head in my hands, 'A minimum of 800,000 died here because we weren't good enough'

' _Don't beat yourself up'_ Illya's voice echoed in my head as her cold flush tingled through my skull

'why even bother detaching when you could sit in my head all of the time' I asked

' _I'm still compiling everything from the other AI, she isn't all that willing to be tampered with'_ she responded with a quick spark of warmth flooding in, before immediately cooling

'What was that?!' I winced

' _that was me, you want me in here more? I'll bring all my things in...'_

'you don't have to, It was just a question'

' _because I've been alone in here for years, and now you've given me the slightest of freedoms and ask why I use it?'_

'give them an inch and they take a mile?'

' _using proverbs don't work like that...'_

The Door hissed open, and the crew walked in, all in different states of 'this is going to be a hard assignment' written on their faces, I stood up and started to head for the door, but Jack grabbed my shoulder firmly his voice softer than before "all of your questions are valid, but there is a time for everything, and Victor isn't in the mood for people pulling on their leashes right now, we had to be hard so others didn't act up'

I spoke softly as well "Suppression isn't the way to deal with questions, it only causes tension, because when we left between 800,000 to 2,400,000 humans on the planet, if that doesn't say FUCK YOU to humanity nothing does, if I'm pulling my leash to say, there might be people left, then I deserve to bite the bullet and my tongue, but maybe someone will think the same and not feel alone in that thought, because people died here, and the thought that someone, anyone is still left should be a though of hopefulness not disdain" I pulled through his hand and towards the door "I just need time to cool off, if it means time in the brig, I'll go there..." I said stepping out into the hall

Alexis took off after me stopping at the door looking back "I'll calm him down, trust me" And I could feel the wink she gave Jack before she caught up to me "Maybe we should invest some time into that room Jack mentioned a while back..."

* * *

 **A 'happy' ending for the beginning of the 'return to Sargasso' arc I can't wait to show you all what's in store.**

 **Thanks for stopping by this months chapter of BIA, feel free to leave a review or favourite, If you haven't yet, feel free to read the first chapter of the side story about William and Alexis's first time on Sargasso at:** /s/12772545/1/The-Sargasso-Chronicle

 **I hope the new year has held up for you all so far if so here's to another great month, if not, My sincerest of apologies**

 **Be sure to stop in next month for another chapter of Brothers in Arms**

 **As always,**

 **Semper Fi**

 **LoyalODST aka William**


	14. Ch13 Boots on the ground

**Welcome back to Brothers in arms: Blood Brothers, Please remember the OC's of Carnage are TheArizona's, While any new characters are my own, AN at the end**

 **Microsoft holds the copyright to the Halo Franchise**

 **[Clarification Article] So it was brought to my attention, that part of the last chapter may have been hard to follow, this is my clarification; The Illya that exists now, is just a fragment of her former self, and the data of what 'she' had put into William's head was lost, so she was looking for the things that would hold an AI in mechanical parts (all the things she listed), but what she was looking for wasn't what was implanted. Hope that clears it up a little bit.**  
 **Anyways back to the story.**

* * *

Boots on the Ground

August 8th, 2550

In Orbit above Sargasso

Sargent William Goodwin

I slowly sat up on the double bed, rubbing my face with my right hand before stretching and looking around, the room was... Small to say the least, it was big enough for the bed, two bedside tables, the store closets, a small desk and chair, along with a small side room which held a shower, toilet and sink.

'Just cosy enough to make it worth it.' I thought to myself, hearing the quiet yawn from behind me, I looked at the side table, Illya's chip sat with a small note that read 'Remember to plug me in when you're done' I picked up the chip and rotated it in my fingers before plugging it in, with the cold flush flowing over me

'Good morning' Illya's voice said with a yawn

'Good morning' I responded, clambering to my feet and walking into the side room, looking into the mirror.

My hair was dishevelled, and matted down, A small scab sat in the centre of my forehead from where I fought the glass of my cryo-pod, I had grown a stubbly beard, and I decided that it had to go, with a few strokes of razor it was gone, next was fixing the hair, I spent a fair few minutes in the shower lost in thought, before thoroughly washing, after I was out I dried myself and did a quick pass through my hair with a comb, it wouldn't be too long before it would need a trimming to, I left the shower room and got dressed, I had nearly gotten fully dressed when I heard the sound of my company finally waking up, I glanced over to her, her hair was a mess, a total bird's nest, and I couldn't help but let out a slight chuckle, she stood up and got up close to me

"Don't make me wring you in, it's too early to be killin' don't cha think." Her native tongue slipping through the cracks

I straightened my collar "Indeed it is little Missy, Might want to hit the showers before the guys come find us" a smirk crossed my face as I turned around

She grabbed me by my ear pulling me down to her level "Right now the last thing I want is to be thinkin' about the others catchin' me after a right tousle, and YOU better not be thinkin' it'd be funny, or you'll be out the nearest airlock, got me?"

"Aye," I said without thinking, and she gave me a glare

"Now sit your arse down, and wait for a lady to get herself cleaned up, will you," she said walking into the side room before letting out an aggravated sigh 'I sound just like my Mother, and it's buggin' me"

"You know, I haven't heard you drop into that accent in years," I said laying back on the bed

Alexis's voice started to sound more 'normal' "well that's because I've spent so much time trying to rid myself of it, It's not the clearest of accents, and it tends to make people think I'm not as smart as I am, you know?"

"I guess that's why I dropped what little of one I had as well," I said leaning up on my hands

"What? sick of being asked where you igloo is?" she joked

I let out an audible sigh, and she laughed

"Now give me a few to crisp up, I have to clean up this rat's nest I'm calling hair"

"Aye, Ma'am, All the time in the world," I said laying back on my back looking up at the roof

"If only," she said over the sound of the now running water

 _-A handful of minutes later-_

A knock at the door caught both of our attention, I stood up and went to answer it, stepping out into the hallway, and was met with Jack looking a little more happy than yesterday.

"Alexis should only be a few more minutes..."

"There's no rush, We don't have to be ready until 13 hundred." He responded before leaning against the wall "About yesterday~"

"No need to say anything, I may have acted out because of my ties to this place, I should have waited to press my questions," I said joining him against the wall

"It's not that, I was just so frayed after all of the goose chasing they made me do, I acted harshly, Maybe at the moment it made sense, but you're part of my team and I shouldn't snap on you for voicing your concern, If anything it was brave of you"

"If you say so," I said quietly as the door slid open, and Alexis joined us

"Gunny," she said with a 'tip of the hat'

"Welcome to the party, in the hangar by 13 hundred sound alright with you?" He said questioningly

"That gives us plenty of time to stop by the mess, and catch up with everyone" She responded with a nod

"Your team is with Dmitri and Anders, you can read the briefing with them after the mess" He stretched

"Aye sir" we both responded, before sharing a chuckle

"Dismissed" Jack waved us off, and we started towards the mess passing by Marines on their way... Somewhere, looked like they were in a hurry, but if we were to be starting today it made sense to not waste any time they had.

When we reached the mess it was fairly crowded, but it didn't take us too long to get our food and find a good seat, The meal was pretty good, hardy stew, starch, and fruit.

We didn't really talk during our short meal time, once we were done we headed up to the armory to get ourselves stocked, I took an MA5 and fixed the under-slung shotgun to it, put it and set of 11, 60 round extended clips into a bag, I wasn't being caught out without enough firepower, next was a DMR and 7 clips for it, the M6C/SOCOM was the last thing I bagged, alongside 11 clips for it. Looking at my haul I'd filled three ammo bags, and had my three weapons of choice ready.

Alexis had a similar train of thought, if we were to meet the enemy we better be ready to blow him away, With a Battle Rifle, Two SMGs and an M6C, and plenty of ammo for all of it.

The door opened and our heads looked over to the sound, and Anders walked in, he looked around for a moment before one of the requisition officers noticed him, waved him over and pulled up his rifle for him to inspect

"you changed it down to the .450, right?" He asked the req. officer

"Yeah, I changed out the scope like you asked and gave you the shorter 'tactical' barrel"

"good" he looked over toward us "I'm not running around with a large, heavy anti-material rifle for the next few weeks, Anyways this should be able to pop the shields on an Elite... if it comes to it"

"Might want to take it down to the range to zero it in, I didn't get to spend much time their myself"

"Will do" Anders said picking up the rifle, before looking back to the man "Ammo?"

"Right" the man bent over behind the desk, and rummaged around before pulling out an ammo bag the size of a small backpack, he handed it to Anders "Hope they fly true"

Anders nodded and took a step back as another familiar face showed up for his weapon, Dmitri took up the entire doorway with his large frame "Do you have her?" he asked

the second req officer got up from his seat and went into a room just beyond, and returned hefting the M247 in his arms, and he placed it on the counter in front of him

"Ah, Ain't she a beauty," he asked us

"Um, Staff that's not the same one as the one you had on Spiron?" I asked in return

He looked me in the face "Any machine gun in my hands is a beauty, and I give them nicknames, 'Sasha' is in the back" he lifted up the weapon and gave it a light kiss

"And this one is?" I looked puzzled

"Sasha" his face was expressionless

"I see?" I said taking a half step back

His face curled into a smile as he started to laugh "Don't worry, All of them are a Sasha, I don't know why, but they just are"

I nodded and shared in the laugh "Ok Staff, what you say goes"

"We should hit the range before its too late," Alexis said pulling on my arm, and I followed, the two requisition officers waved us off and Dmitri put his head into his hand leaning down onto the counter chatting with the pair.

"What an odd man," I said jokingly

"Mhm" Alexis nodded "wouldn't have him any other way through"

When we arrived at the range Anders was already dialling in his weapon, from the 'score' he was pretty damn close to having it combat ready, or he was taking his time enjoying the time he had to work with his weapon.

we soon joined the ranks of the range and tested out our weapons, the time flew by and before we knew it Anders stood behind us "Times up, we have to be in the hangar in about 15" and we quickly wrapped up and with a quick jaunt we were in the hangar

we met up with the rest of Carnage for a brief chat before we went our ways, and Dmitri, Anders, Alexis and I boarded our pelican, and soon a squad of Marines also piled in, the door closed as the pilots went over their pre-flight checklist

One of the Marines, A younger new guy looked around and saw us at the front of them and in an attempt to break the ice asked "So, any of you been here before?" the whole bay went quiet, If he could see my face he would have seen the angriest of daggers starring at him.

A collective "nope" came from the other Marines.

I looked at the other ODST sitting with me and then back "A few of us have"

he looked slightly concerned "I'm sorry if I made you think of a bad experience"

"War is hell, kid. Not everyone makes it out alive" Dmitri said before adding "and that's the end of it"

"Aye sir," he said, pulling his head in towards his shoulders, looking down to the deck-plates.

the ride to the surface was one in silence, and it remained quiet until we reached the landing pad, the creak of the door marked our official duty on the surface.

when we left the pelican we took a second to look around, the sky was mostly a faint blue, with a smear of light gray clouds, I slowly walked away from the group, down onto the gravel at the end of the base, it crunched under my feet, I took a look at the small stones, one caught my eye and a bent over to grab it, it fit into the palm of my hand and had a distinct blue colour to it, and I rolled it in my hand, I stood up and brought the stone with me, Alexis soon rushed towards me when she noticed I had left the group

"You alright?" she asked

I held out the stone and she looked at it "Part of me wonders if it is from here or if it is from home"

"Lapis isn't _That_ rare," she said with a slight smile

"Could you hold on to this for me?" I said with a sincere face

She placed a hand on my shoulder "Ok, lover-boy, I'll keep it until you want it back" and I handed it to her, she rolled it in her hand, before putting it in a pouch on her waist

"let's get back to the group" I looked towards the fledgeling camp

We walked up the path to the base, and when we got to the ramp up Dmitri was at the top looking down at us "we have literally been here five minutes and you two ran off"

"It's my fault, sir, I-" I looked over my shoulder "It won't happen again," I said looking back at him

"Right, let's get to the command tent before we get our heads bitten off..." he said pivoting and walking off, we soon caught up and entered the command tent

"Glad for you to have joined us C2" A man bearing the rank of First Lieutenant, the silver bar adorning his collar.

"My apologies sir, these two got caught up in the sights," Dmitri said before standing at attention

"Right... anyways I am Lieutenant Avery Kursk of the 829th, and before it comes up, yes I know how useful you and your team are, but as much as I am technically in charge of you, you have your own important mission, so I won't keep you from it, the next group of hogs will be down in about ten minutes, you will get first pick on which one you'll need for said mission, but the brass says you only get one, since there are four of you..."

"it's going to be a tight squeeze" I pipe up

"Ah, yes, that would be one way of saying it," Kursk said before leaning on the table in front of him "let's hope this planet is as bare as they say it is, the covenant really got rid of any defendable locations on this part of the continent"

I looked at the floor 'a lot of people fought near here' I thought to myself

"You got something to say, Sargent?" Kursk said looking straight at me

"I know why that this part of the continent is glassed, the UNSC had a 'last stand' of sorts around here"

"that so? I'm not well versed in the battle that took place here, Know of any bases left?"

"No sir," I said turning my head back to the floor

Shortly after that a Corporal showed up "the next shipment just arrived sir" she said

"'kay, C2 go get your ride then get going, stock up on rations and ammo, don't forget that you can call us up if you need anything else"

Dmitri shook his hand "got it, Thanks" and he turned and lead us out to the shipment "I need a weeks work of rations for 4"

"A weeks worth?" the man said looking up from his datapad "alright"

"and a Hog" Dmitri continued

"Over to the far side, we have three available"

we walked over to the hogs, and Dmitri walked over to one of the ones with an LAAG "This one" he said to us, as we walked over he hooked two small 'gas' tanks of water to the rear "that should hold the reactor out for a while" before putting another two into the gunners well, alongside 4 extra box magazines for the big gun, soon a Marine walked over with a few small crates, which Dmitri also put in the gunners well.

"Why aren't you filling up the passenger seats well?" I asked

"because you have to be able to sit in there"

"I- wait what?!"

"we have our gunner, and I'd rather Anders on lookout, plus you're small enough to fit in the hole"

I grumbled before walking up to the passenger side and clambering in, sitting in the small foot hole, and when Anders got in he sat on the seat, with his legs to the one side to of me, I could hear the gun wind up

"nice," Alexis said from up top

the vehicle shook as Dmitri climbed in and he typed on the console in the middle before a small waypoint appeared on my visor, pointing to the north-east, and flashed 80K in small print, and the loud sound of the engine starting blared to life before quieting down to the quiet hum, and the motors revved up as we took off

 _-Meanwhile on the Millennium in orbit-_

"Why do we have to sit up here, you'd think after Spiron we'd get a little more free time," A female said leaning back on her chair

"Don't like observing the Marines at work?" A man's voice returned

"It's not that I _don't_ like it, it's just boring, I want to get back into the fight not sit in space watching a group of guys drive for an hour before looking for a... What are we even looking for?" she asked

"I don't have the clearance to know, but whatever it is, its important" the man responded

"Right," she said before taking a drink from a glass of water

"You two" A second man joined the pair "I need you suited up within the hour, I think we might have found it"

* * *

' **A minor cliffhanger I see' I hear you saying**

' **it's a good way to make you want to come back for the next chapter' I say in return**

 **Anyways, holy heck, almost 1,000 views! You know when I started this I thought this would only be read by a few people, but now just look just 13 chapters in and we are almost reaching quadruple digits, that averages out to about 77 people reading every chapter, which is quite humbling in my opinion.**

 **In another note I'm taking creative liberty in changing Dmitri's weapon to the M247 GPMG from the M247H HMG, I hope that the way I worked it in made sense and flowed with his character, But running around with an 80 pound gun for a week without support would probably be a lot even for an ex-weightlifter**

 **Please feel free to drop a review, favourite or follow, every one of these helps me develop the story, and let me know that people like what they are reading.**

 **Also feel free to read the first chapter of the side story at:** /s/12772545/1/The-Sargasso-Chronicle

 **Be sure to stop by next month for another chapter of Brothers In Arms**

 **As Always,**

 **Semper Fi**

 **LoyalODST aka William**


	15. Ch14 The First Artifact

**Welcome back to Brothers in arms: Blood Brothers, Please remember the OC's of Carnage are TheArizona's, While any new characters are my own, AN at the end**

 **Microsoft holds the copyright to the Halo Franchise**

* * *

The First artifact

August 8th, 2550

Just arriving at the Forward Operating Base 'Lexington'

Gunnery Sargent Jack Price

The Pelican landed softly, and we soon clambered out with the whine of the engines dying down, and we headed to the Officer in charge, He took a quick glance at us and gave us full clearance, we to get what we needed to get our operation underway, when we arrived at the depot the Requisitions officer brought us over to a fully loaded Warthog, and we quickly went through all of the things they had packed us, Dmitri must have over packed his, they gave us a weeks worth of supplies, Which I though was more than enough, but I wasn't about to turn the extra's back into the depot just in case.

After clearing with the rest of carnage, and sticking Stein In the Passenger's footwell, it didn't look too comfortable but he was more than willing to sit there, we got underway, our 'road' trip was only 60 Km, if the terrain was more favorable it would have only taken us just under 40 minutes, but it took us over an hour to arrive at the site, or... what was left of it, It was the ruins of a small town or a large military base.

"Connors keep that gun on a swivel, I don't want to be snuck up on, Mcfee, I trust you to keep an eye out."

"aye," they both said, as we slowly approached the ruins

A few birds crowed from the tops of old decrepit buildings, they kept everyone's eyes on a quick swivel, Stein even sat up on the passenger seat to give an extra pair of eyes, when we arrived at the beacon's location, an updated objective popped up '-Find Underground Entrance'.

I stopped the hog dead in its tracks, "McFee, Stein, Start looking on foot, I'll look for a place to put the hog, If there are people here better keep it hidden away."

the two of them hopped out, and started to scan around, I took the warthog up to a 'hole in the wall' and slowly backed it in, there was a fair amount of space in the hole after the small exit, it looked like a nice little crook to use as a hiding spot, or a camp to hold up in if the weather goes south.

"Sir, you might want to see this" McFee said over the comms

after parking the hog, and pulling the Ignition key out of it "What is it?" I asked him

"Stein said to get you, I haven't seen it yet" he replied but he sounded serious

"we'll be right over" I said exiting the hole, and lightly pulling down on a sheet of metal, it slid down in front of the majority of the hole, after I made sure it wasn't too hard to slip inside, I left a marker that we could track on the compass and started towards McFee and Stein, when I arrived McFee was leaning on a doorway looking off towards the old roads "Corporal?" I said questioningly as I closed in on him, he gave me a head tilt towards the door, and I slipped past him, and I watched him catch Connors shoulder and giving him a head shake.

When I past through the first room, nothing looked out of place besides the fact it was in ruins, the next room said a lot, up turned metal tables, and in the next door way laid a large skeleton, which screamed 'brute', as I carefully stepped over it I looked into the next room, and found Stein writing on his datapad, at his feet was a cluster of 20 skeletons- Human skeletons, a few were pinned to the wall with the 'spikes' of the brutes weapon, the others were just huddled, likely in fear, I nearly slipped on some of the rubble, causing Stein to look over and without pausing to blink he said "4 adult males, 3 adult females, 5 females between the age of 8-12, 2 males under the age of 3, and six teenagers, 3 male, 3 female."

I just gave him a glance of 'isn't this deeply disturbing', because I've seen corpses before, but never seen anyone continue like it was they weren't standing next to what would be a massacre if it wasn't during wartime.

"Sir, We should say something- like, an obituary, It isn't right to just leave them here like this" He looked back at me, I could see a tinge of sadness behind his visor

"Any Ideas then?" I asked him, coming over to right beside him

"I think I have something appropriate" Stein cleared his throat and took a step forwards "Your names are unknown, as are your deeds, you paid the Ultimate price in a war that was not yours to fight, We will continue our efforts to prevent more from suffering the same fate as you... and if you were religious may you rest in the arms of the father, Know that he will protect your soul for all of eternity" he gestured across before taking a step back "Amen" He finished

"Amen" I said lightly gripping his shoulder "If we had more time, we would give them a proper burial", And I took a step forwards "forgive me for what I'm about to do" My voice was soft, as I reached out and took the weapons from the corpses, and searched their armor for ammo magazines, after I was done I took a step back "We'll put these to good use" before turning to the brute, taking its weapon and leaving the room "Stein, lets get moving"

"~A-Aye sir." he said catching up with me, and both McFee and Connors had restarted the search for the entrance we were here to find, after a few hours of searching and the sunlight ebbing beyond the horizon, I called off the search, brought the team back to the hog, and got them bedded in for the night, before sending off a quick 'A-OK' signal back to base, After that I clambered into the drivers seat and fell asleep

-Later in the Night-

I was awoken to the sound of gravel being scattered, then a flurry of footfalls that got quieter before fading out, I sat up and carefully reaching to my helmet turning on its VISR mode; the room lit up.

'nothing out of place' I thought sliding out of the drivers seat and on to the gravely floor, that's when it hit me to check around just to be sure, I slowly approached the doorway and looked out, I could see a fair amount in the low light, but easily noticed the pole stuck in the ground maybe 40 feet from the door way, right in the open, I could see something hanging off of it, looked like a sheet of paper, which peaked my interest so I moved in to investigate.

upon reaching the pole and taking off the note I retreated to the cover I had to leave to retrieve the note, I opened it and read it.

'We see you, We are you, meet us at Capital building for what you seek -Hollis Graham'

I closed the note 'So there are people here, or am I going to lead my men into a trap led by some cunning Covies' I thought to myself slowly slinking back into the camp, and trying to get more rest

-At daybreak-

I got the guys together, and told them of our 'informant', Connors and McFee suggested we should call base about this, but I shot it down and told them "We should find out the scope of this first, No point in calling the base over one man"

"We don't know he's alone Gunny" Stein raised a finger "but we should talk to this... Hollis, See what he has to show us"

"I won't force you to go, we need someone to stay with the hog while we're gone, So raise your hand if your willing to go," I said raising my hand, Stein followed suit, Connors looked to McFee and they nodded, and both raised their hands

"Might as well, better than searching for hours to no avail" Connors said in a lively tone

"Good, McFee are you willing to watch the Hog," I asked to which he immediately gave me a thumbs up and climbed into the side seat, "Call us if you need us" to which he nodded.

After a short breakfast, we left the hole to find this Capital building, which didn't take us all that long, it was only about a dozen blocks from the hole in the wall, there was the remnants of a memorial plaza, the ruined statue had crashed through one of the giant engraved marble walls, the other marble wall had been heavily damaged, it looked to be battle damage, knowing sure well that if a covenant ship had done this, this whole plaza would be a glass crater.

As we crossed the plaza, I noticed a Glint from a blown out window on the third floor of the Capital building

"Get down!" I shouted before finding cover behind the statue's plinth, I saw Connors and Stein scatter and take cover

"What did you see Gunny, Sniper?" Connors said in a worried tone

"I Saw a glint of light from the third floor, Hold your position" I said quietly pulling my pistol out, and 'scoped in', I then carefully used the weapon to scan the building for hostiles, the window I had seen the glint was vacant, but to my surprise a bulky man walked out the main doors, And in a smooth southern United States accent he shouted cupping his hands over his mouth

"Hey. Y'all don't have to hide from me, I don't bite!"

I cautiously raised my head above the edge of the plinth, pistol still drawn, with the ridicule on him "Are you the one who left the note!" I shouted back

"Well shoot, yes I am, you must be the big wig that was real careful trying to get it," he said with a laugh

"I am, Hollis Graham why did you bring us here," I asked him

"Because I overheard one of your chats yesterday, you need to the underground, and I know you don't mean the metro system, You want the 'underground' the place that no Civ could ever without the clearance of the brass, and more importantly those Spooks up in ONI"

"I would assume that is correct, Our mission hasn't updated yet," I said quietly

"Now, if you'd like I could bring you there, but I have to show you something first and you have to promise to not shoot him," he said in a loud tone giving me a solid stare

"Stand down, I'll play ball," I said loudly

"Good, Come on out Jeffery" Hollis said, a moment later an Elite walked out of the capital building, and within an instant all three our guns were on it, The Elite had an SRS99-S2 in hand and UNSC tactical eyepiece over his right eye, when he saw us he let out a hiss "Weapon away Jeffery, These are friends and they WON'T hurt you if you be polite"

The Elite exhaled loudly before slinging the rifle over his shoulder but kept a hover hand on a plasma pistol at his side.

I holstered my pistol and stood up motioning for Connors and Stein to do the same "Well as much as I don't want to, I'll let you show us where we are going"

"Good, Good, Right this way," He said turning towards the doorway and walking in

we caught up with him,and he led us down and down, must have been about five floors down before he led us through a small maze of hallways adjoined to office space and dusty server racks, soon we passed a military checkpoint of sorts, and once we passed it the architecture changed to this smooth bronze-ish silver metal with runes of a language I didn't know, this hall soon led to a door with a small box attached to the wall next to it with a dotted outline of a human hand on it

"So here we are," Hollis said, and I watched a new objective pop up '-Get inside'

"how do we get in," I asked

"well from what I would guess, is this panel," he said placing a hand on it to which it lit up red and flashed "I don't think it'd let me in even if I wanted in"

I moved forward and did the same and it flashed yellow "What does that mean" I asked Hollis

"Like I would know, I'd leave you to it but knowing how protocol works you won't let us leave"

I wanted to wave them free, but I wasn't going to let an Elite out of my sight if I had to trust it, it had to be in range of being killed... Trust it? no I didn't trust it, I wanted it dead, I know it wants me dead... or does it, Now is not the time to have a revelation about the hinge-head standing behind me, I needed to get this door open, I put my hand on the pad again, and touched the door with my other, the pad flickered yellow before going solid and fading into green, and with a Hissing click the Doors red lights turned green and the door opened

The air that left the room was cold and left a sour feeling in the air, I cautiously took the first step in, and then another, and another, until I stood at the central control panel which was coated in a thick layer of dust, and when I swiped my hand across the monitor the room hummed to life, all of the terminals lit up, and odd mechanical whirring came form the ceiling before a robotic arm-like construct dropped down, on its furthest reach was a camera sphere, it got really close to my face before noticing the Elite in the doorway

"A Sangheili down here!? Does that mean the war has ended?" A posh male voice emitted from speakers around the room before returning to right in front of my face "Answers" its voice boomed

"It's a temporary arrangement, and... No, the war isn't over, My turn for asking questions, why and how are you still down here, and two where is the... Resonate Crystalline Structure?" I said looking up at my list of objectives

"I am still here because I am the maintainer of this location, even before you humans arrived, and I was the one who got the humans from here to safety before locking the compound down, Until someone with enough clearance could enter... and the~" the 'eye' looked over my shoulder to the Elite "~crystal is down the main corridor and in the vault to the left, but only you can go get it, the... others must stay in this room"

"Fine, Connors, Stein, keep those two here, use lethal force if necessary," I said to my men before leaving the main terminal, I watched as the two of them flawlessly and quickly drew their weapons and took cover watching our 'guests' and the door

"Excuse me! you can't just point guns at us and not let us leave" I heard Hollis yell before I heard the sound of Connors training his sights on him

"Sit down, and shut up, None of us like this, the sooner it gets started, the sooner its over and we can all leave" Connors voice was firm, yet kind

between me and the hall ahead of me was a translucent shimmering barrier, which opened to left me through and closed as soon as I passed through, for a half second I looked back, before continuing down the hall way, near the end there was distinct change in the walls and the singular vault door, I watched as a comedic amount of locking gears spun before it opened with a magnetic *click* I stepped inside to a small room containing a wall of deposit boxes, one of them popped open and slid forwards to where I could remove it from the wall, inside was an assortment of AI chips; all empty.

"This Isn't right?" I said aloud before sticking my head out of the door, I watched as the arm swivelled around looking down the hall, before quickly sliding along the roof to just in front of me

"Data crystals is what you asked for" It responded in a slightly confused tone

"Its something to do with the forerunner, I don't know exactly what it is, that's what I'm here for, AND I need it now," I said with a little confidence being further from the Elite, and I swear the camera blinked at me

"I'm sorry I don't understand what you are looking for, this location was cleared before evacuation" it responded

"so We've wasted time looking for a forerunner crystal" I scowled and almost like a light flicked on, the Camera turned to the safe, and another box opened, I walked over and looked into, and inside was a rich purple gemstone, and when I grabbed it, it pulsed alongside my heartbeat.

"It was the last thing they were studying before the covenant arrived, it just reacts to any human in direct contact with it," the AI said, before exiting the vault and returning to the central desk

I carefully put the crystal into one of my many pouches and returning to the group

"You may all leave now, you are no longer welcome here" The AI's tone becoming harsh, and voice sounding more robotic, Hollis slowly left followed by 'Jeffery' and the three of us, I turned back to see the doors close heavily and lock. Once we had left the building, Hollis told us that there was a small village of his people about 5 kilo's to the east from the edge of town, I let the two of them free to go home, knowing that it wouldn't be easy to tell my superiors that the crew of the _Millennium_ lied to us

I spent most of my time during the walk back to McFee, thinking of how I would tell the higher-ups, the Admiral was very disinterested with even humoring the Idea of survivors, and when we arrived at the camp, I got Connors to help me remove the sheet metal blocking the exit, before jumping into the drivers seat and turning the vehicle on

"We're leaving, we have what we came for," I said sternly

McFee looked to us "what happened?"

Connors just kind of shrugged before climbing into the turret, and Stein looked McFee right in the face "we found survivors" before getting into the footwell, McFee looked to me then gave a slight nod then got himself sat in the seat waiting for the long trip back to base

* * *

 **I hope you enjoyed the chapter, I apologize that it didn't answer any questions from the last chapter, and in fact probably raised more, I'm sure they will be resolved shortly.**

 **Please feel free to drop a review, favourite or follow, every one of these helps me develop the story knowing that people like what they are reading.**

 **Also feel free to read the first chapter of the side story at:** **/s/12772545/1/The-Sargasso-Chronicle**

 **Be sure to stop by next month for another chapter of Brothers In Arms**

 **As Always,**

 **Semper Fi**

 **LoyalODST aka William**


	16. Ch15 The Lost Armoury

**Welcome back to Brothers in arms: Blood Brothers, Please remember the OC's of Carnage are TheArizona's, While any new characters are my own, AN at the end**

 **Microsoft holds the copyright to the Halo Franchise**

* * *

The Lost Armoury

August 8th, 2550 around 16:00

Somewhere in the southern hemisphere of Sargasso's eastern continent

Sargent William Goodwin

We had arrived at the area we were supposed to explore for the 'artifact' but the ruins here were near impassible, which we credited to the 'near miss' of a glassing laser due to the large 'glass plains' only about half a kilometre from where the way-point was located, the sea of glass ended with charred earth and the beginning of utterly decimated cityscape, there was fallen skyscrapers, others who were bent and twisted, some leaned into others, there was a strange beauty to it all that I couldn't place.

We parked up in the foyer of one of the buildings, to our surprise it had most of its windows still intact, giving us protection from the weather... if there would even be any while we were here, plus it would give us a good place to start from, and to be honest, we needed it, because during the first two days on location we didn't find anything of note, at the end of each day we sent back an 'all clear' message to base, and with just the four of us the time alone seemed slow; but relaxing, Like the R&R we were supposed to get back on Earth.

On the third day we fanned out further from one another to investigate more of the ruins, I though I had found what we were looking for but it ended up just being the ruined entrance to a subway system, But I didn't turn up empty handed per-say I noticed some of the old security cameras would move slowly as I explored old buildings, so ether they were motion activated- Or they had a pair of eyes on the other end, but as I continued to explore I kept noticing more cameras keeping an eye out for me from buildings further away, making me almost certain that it was the latter and I was going to try my hardest to find it.

I was the last one to return to camp after the sun was close to setting, and brought up the cameras, They hadn't noticed them, but they all agreed to keep an eye out for them tomorrow, And we all hunkered in for the night, it took me longer to fall asleep knowing that something was watching me, it was just so unsettling.

In the morning we had a quick but energetic breakfast, and conversed about the areas we were going to explore, We had lucky been given some areal maps over the night, one of the cruisers must have deployed a series of scouts drones to chart maps of the new landscapes around the firebases.  
I personally wanted to look in the old industrial sector of town, there was a lot of large buildings, but they all looked to be only a few stories tall at the tallest, making my search less about climbing stairs, and more about looking for what were here for, Anders also wanted to get the industrial area under the same rational, but he gave me the position with very little coaxing, I let out a small cheer when we had finally decided, and we all went our own ways, we'd still be within a short jaunt from one another if things heated up, but beyond that we were all alone, I had to be glad that Illya had put some of her storage space to holding onto a playlist of music, it defiantly made some of the slower parts of the search go faster.

By mid afternoon I had searched most of the smaller buildings and a fair amount of the larger ones, I then stopped to eat my ration-pack, after I had finished up, I went back to searching, soon after I noticed a flickering light it was a distinctive red flash, It dawned on me that it had been years since I seen a stoplight, most vehicles were self-driving in cities back on Earth and stoplights were rarely needed, and I came to a stop looking at it, it then stopped and further down the street at what looked to be a large parking garage a yellow light flicked in Morse code, _'in here'_ and before I entered I raised a hand to my helmet and tagged the radio

"I think I found something, Dropping marker, Stand by for updates," I said in a hushed tone, before dropping a virtual way-point.

Two acknowledgement lights flicked on and I heard Dmitri answer "Understood, any signs of trouble and you bounce, Got it"

I quickly flicked my Acknowledged light before creeping into the garage and followed the flicking lights down the ramp, weapon at the ready, the lights lead me down eight floors before I was met with a large floor, two stories tall, with a large metal floor, it looked to be one giant piece, and the corners of the room looked like they were the inside of a freight elevator, off to the side was a booth with a light inside flashing, so I entered the booth and a small panel flickered yellow, before showing an outline of a hand below the layer of dust, I brushed it off and the panel flickered red aggressively, before flashing green with the outline of the hand and subduing to yellow again.

"I know, I was just getting rid of the dust you crazy machine" I said under my breath before taking off my glove and placing my hand on the pad, which it flashed a vibrant green as the sound of machinery whirred to life under the metal floor, counting this as 'trouble' I took a few steps back up the ramp and levelled my weapon at the slowly rising floor, but after a minute of holding my gun to this slowly rising empty platform and sort of mindlessly I walked onto it, and to no ones surprise it slowly descended, and I quickly dropped another virtual way-point, so the others would know I'm now below the floor.

As the elevator slowly descended I looked around, and saw a small camera, and gave it a quick wave, and to my surprise it responded, A soft 'prim and proper' feminine voice entered over a speaker somewhere on the elevator

"Hello, to you as well" It said, Causing me to take a step back due to the sudden addition of an actual voice to the mind that has being guiding me here, "My apologies, for startling you, welcome to UNSC Storage Base 679301-a, It use to be known as the 'Armoury' by the Marines who were stationed here... I'm sure you have many questions, and I'll do my best to answer them"

"How-why-When-... I-I honestly don't know where to start with my questions" I replied

"That was to be expected, from what your friends have been saying none of you expected anything to still be working here on Sargasso"

"Well... The world was lost to the Covenant, and normally we try to leave no records for them to find, so finding an active AI and storage base a little jarring"

the voice chuckled "That would normally be true, wouldn't it, I guess I would be a rare exception, all of my vital files revolving the UNSC, and Humanities holdings are long gone, I still have minor files, like some vehicle blueprints, and how to run the machinery necessary to fix those vehicles... an extensive list of botanical files from starting from scratch and maintaining large hydroponics~"

"Why do you have so much on growing food"

"We have a large hydroponics system down here, we could maintain a company for over a year, and smaller numbers for much longer... and one person near indefinably"

I took a step back "you're not planning on keeping me down here are you?"

the AI laughed again "heavens no, Honestly, I couldn't stand having to take care of two of you"

"Two?" as the word left my mouth a man with long hair and a scraggly beard walked into the room the lift had lowered into, he looked at me and raised a cup taking a swig before turning, and like being slapped in the face he swung back around and pointed at me, before looking confused at his hand and shaking his head before exiting the room, and less than three seconds later returned

"who the hell are you?" he asked

"Sargent William Goodwin" I responded, being honest

"Ah? how long have you been here?"

"A few minutes?" I said questioningly

"No, no on the planet, like from before the war?"

"A few days"

he spat out his drink "that's not possible, the UNSC abandoned this world 4 years ago"

"I know, I was here"

"here, here?" he pointed to the floor

"no, the other side of the planet" I waved my hand over my shoulder

"So they came back for us?!"

"Not exactly, The ONI team that brought us here said we shouldn't be seeing survivors"

he looked pissed "of course ONI would say that" he turned "Vanessa, Just about how many people do you predict are still on the planet"

The AI was silent for a moment "80,000, give or take 20,000"

"you think that they would have been seen from orbit, 80,000 people?"

"they're mostly small tribes, less than 1,000 people each, they tend to avoid each other, and especially the roving packs of Jackals and the few dozen Elites still on-world..."

"the Covenant didn't leave?"

"Ha! no we blew one of their cruisers out of the sky, one of the big ones and it crashed into the mountains by New-Corinth, and the Jackals escaped... they didn't really have a reason to stay with the Elites"

"and the Elites?"

"Some still follow their old missions, Killing on sight, others ditched the bandwagon a while back"

"how do you know so much about the surface if you've been in a bunker the whole time"

Vanessa spoke up "we have plenty of old drones on the surface and satellites up in orbit"

"Yeah, you wouldn't believe how much the Covenant didn't mess with after they won, they finished off their original missions, and started chasing after all those ships that ran off, a few returned for a short while to pick up the primary stragglers, then left again, the last vessel in system owned by anyone was..."

"Pirates" Vanessa said, as her avatar appeared on the pedestal next to the man

"Really, why would Innies show up here?" I asked

"A world fresh full of loot" the man sighed

"sure sounds like something the Innies would do" I Stretched out my arms "but I'm going to need to tell my teammates about this place"

"Listen" Vanessa started "The UNSC can have everything in here as long as you can get both of us off world"

"what all do you have down here, besides the hydroponics?" I asked

They both looked at me like I had three heads before Vanessa spoke up "Its an armoury, we have a huge stockpile of weapons and ordnance down here, and the facilities to repair and build new parts if need be"

"How big of a stockpile we talking, a handful of vehicles, or?"

The man grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the lift "it'd be easier to just show you, Vanessa bring us down"

The lift started lowering before we even got on it but it moved slow enough that when we got on, it was just a step-down and as we lowered I asked the man a few questions "So, Who are you, and how long have you been down here?"

"Me? I'm Patrick Smith, and I've been down here for 3 years and 145 give or take a dozen days"

"so you were outside when everything went down" My voice was sombre

"Yeah, I was North of here by a fair distance, and for the first few months, I wandered from ruined city to ruined city, rarely encountering anyone else, after a while, I found this place, mostly because Vanessa led me here just like you. seeing how you found this place" he said tilting his head looking at the edge of the lift

"You keep looking to the edges, whats down here"

"Trust me it'll blow your socks off" He said as the lift cleared the shaft into a large open motor-pool, and he turned me to the row upon row of Scorpion MBT's and watched my face flash into awe as the sight filled my eyes, he then turned me around to the fleet of warthogs, and turned me again to a large set of doors "behind those are all the toys"

"you-you weren't kidding when you said an armoury, you have so much down here!"

"Enough to keep the Army resupplied for a fair few fights"

"how many?"

"Fights? I don't know a dozen?"

"No, How many vehicles do you have?"  
Vanessa spoke up 97 M808's, 98 if you count a half-assembled one, and 200 M12's; 150 have LAAG's, 25 with M97 Missile Launchers, and 25 with M86 Gauss Cannons... And downstairs we have 6 Pelicans"

I sort of fell into a sitting pose "Do you know how much more of a threat we could have posed with all this armour?!"

Vanessa's voice sounded cold "Yes"

Patrick placed a hand on my shoulder "I bet you all did your best with what you had" he said before patting me and standing back up

I sat there for a minute mulling over everything before jumping to my feet "Its been a long time since I last reported in, they might be looking for me about now!"

Vanessa returned "You'd be correct, they're at the top of the elevator right now, I'm going to bring them down using one of the smaller service lifts"

\- A few minutes later -

"You didn't report in," Dmitri said looking me in the face

"I- might have forgotten to, but for good reason, just look at this place. I swear they have more vehicles down here than the fleet does in space" I said in an excited but serious tone

Dmitri looked round "It honestly doesn't surprise me, Hidden outposts sound like something _we_ would do a lot"

Anders walked through a door that lead up from the motor-pool "So, Who's going to get to spill the news to the Admiral?"

"As much as I'd like to say; I found it, I get to gloat. I think Staff should get the honour" I said leaning on a wall "But we still haven't found what were here for..."

Vanessa's voice faded into the room "Sorry to drop in, but what might you be looking for?"

Dmitri stood up looking to the camera "some sort of forerunner object, we know it was somewhere in this city from before the battle, but we've been searching for a couple of days and haven't found the slightest of clues"

Vanessa's avatar appeared on the pedestal near the elevator in a 'thinking man-esque' pose, she mulled over the word "forerunner" a few times before standing up "I think I know where it could be, but I cant open the door- It requires a biological signal I don't have. But I can show you where the door is"

"Alright," I said as The four of us got up and started towards her

"Get on the lift, I'll take you down as far as it can go, there will be a bit of walking after," Vanessa said before reappearing on the smaller pedestal on the lift, and she started to lower the elevator after we stepped on it

"so, a biological signal?" I piped up

"I think it was meant as a security measure so not just anything could open the door," Vanessa said with a slight turn of her avatar towards me

The lift Hissed to a halt at the bottom of the shaft, at the fifth level Vanessa lead us deeper into the compound, and down to a set of switchback stairs, that lead down a few dozen floors

"So what's all that space for?" Alexis asked

"Automated storage, a Brig, volatile compounds, a few research laboratories... Mostly the first one though"

we all let out a hum of acknowledgement before starting down the stairs, floor after floor we walked, and when we reached the bottom Vanessa told us it wouldn't be too much farther, opening the door led to a strange change of architecture, from the grey and greens of Standard UNSC design was this brass toned metal hallway that sloped further down into the earth, as we walked down the temperature dropped by a few degrees, my HUD showed a mild 10 degrees Centigrade, and it only got colder as we progressed, soon the inclined path opened up into a large two floored area which was hollow in the centre allowing us to look to the floor below

"Through the door on the lower floor will be another hallway at the end of that is the door I cannot open" Vanessa said quietly

we quickly walked to the lower floor, glancing to my HUD the temperature dropped to 3 degrees, and when the door to the hall opened a rush of frigid air flushed forwards, the temperature reading dropped to -10 degrees before climbing back to the prior reading of 3 degrees

"why is it so cold down here?" I asked

"We don't know, We tried warming it up but would just cool more to compensate" Vanessa responded before urging us further down the hall, when we reached the end, next to the door was a small panel with a handprint on it, so I put my hand on it, it flashed yellow and text popped up

'Species: Human, Genetic Marker found but in the reclusive state, Access restricted'

"reclusive state?" I looked back to my team, as Anders pushed past and put his hand down

it pulsed red "Species: Human, Genetic Marker Not found, Access denied', he took a step back and Dmitri stepped up, with the same text popping up, and then Alexis stepped up

"everyone else got too" she said putting her hand on it

'Species: Human, Genetic Marker found, Access granted. Welcome Home' the console read as it flashed green and the door jutted open suddenly

"Strange, I now have access to systems inside, Please enter"Vanessa's voice echoed from the room ahead of us.

* * *

 **Return of the cliffhangers? Unfortunately for this chapter, the answer is yes, but I hope you enjoyed the chapter anyway!**

 **And the reason why this chapter is a day 'late' is I forgot to post it.**

 **Please feel free to drop a review, favourite or follow, every one of these helps me develop the story knowing that people like what they are reading.**

 **also feel free to read the first chapter of the side story at: /s/12772545/1/The-Sargasso-Chronicle**

 **Be sure to stop by next month for another chapter of Brothers In Arms**

 **As Always,**

 **Semper Fi**

 **LoyalODST aka William**


	17. Ch16 Locked in

**Welcome back to Brothers in arms: Blood Brothers, Please remember the OC's of Carnage are TheArizona's, While any new characters are my own, AN at the end**

 **Microsoft holds the copyright to the Halo Franchise**

* * *

Locked in

10th of August 2550

UNSC Storage Base 679301-a, aka the 'Armoury'

Sargent William Goodwin

We walked into the corridor leading further into the compound, Vanessa was on a pedestal in the upcoming room and looked to be in deep contemplation, the corridor opened into a large octagonal room.

Vanessa turned to us "I've been here before, in this system before, but I can't recall anything from in this chamber, I don't think it was in the files that were purged, please one moment" her portrait winked out

suddenly the door closed forcefully with a thunderous crash and its green seal turned red

"Vanessa?" I said in a worried tone

"I- I'm getting locked out of every~" she reappeared on the pedestal, looking as she had physically been pushed there, and in a well refined male voice

"Foreign AI, Cease and desist your attempts to subvert my authority in this system, and recall your subterfuge elements or be purged from the system"

back on the pedestal a copy of Vanessa's avatar was pushed into the first, which fused back into one form, Vanessa looked clearly distressed from the sudden and forceful rejection, it must be hard to have 100% access to a whole base to virtually 0 in seconds.

the male voice returned this time booming and aggressive "I warned you!" as Vanessa's avatar winked off the pedestal and a Chip clattered to the floor next to the pedestal

I Hastily took a step forward to retrieve the chip

the voice changed its target to me "AND WHO ARE~ you... Humans, down here? its been so long!" the voice lost its hostile tone, it even seemed to drop into a cordial stance

"I am Sargent William Goodwin UNSC Marines" I said from my crouched pose next to the pedestal, before taking Vanessa's chip into my hand and slipping it into a pocket

"that means we won, correct?" the AI continued

"No, we lost pretty bad, but We're here to recover a Forerunner relic"

"relic... I don't know if we have one, I'll wake the others to see if they remember, wait one" the voice faded out

"Wait, others?" I asked into the now quiet room

a digital feminine voice spoke from a room adjacent on the floor above "Cyrogenics thaw cycle complete, welcome back"

at first I noticed the slow climb of temperature, it raised from -10c up to the cool 3c from where we came, I glanced back to the rest of the squad, who had taken up a defensive stance in the corridor, Alexis was waving me to return, but I couldn't move away, Both a slight fear and a strong curiosity kept me planted, returning my sight to the hall at the top of the ramps, soon a cacophony of footsteps approached, and soon any fear I had was lifted, as ten humans dressed in lab-coats entered the room above, and their gaze dropped to me

"I see... Boy, are you alone" the elder man leaning on the metal railing called to me

"No sir" I called back "I was told you might know of something forerunner-esque down here"

the man laughed as he walked down the ramp "the whole place down here is 'forerunner-esque', this place was built by them ages ago"

"no, no, I mean something specifically, A relic, an artifact?"

the man paused halfway down the ramp "Rasheed, can you go get object 35-a and 35-b please"

a slightly Arabic accented younger man spoke up "right away"

the elder man continued down the ramp, glancing behind me "are your friends still in the upper base?"

"No sir, they would have joined me had your AI not given us a good startle and forcefully removed the base's AI from the system down here"

"Oh yes, Percival really is a stickler to the rules, Vanessa was told to stay out of here, But that file was likely removed when her data was purged" he spoke, then paused "I am Reginald by the by"

I extended a hand "Sargent William Goodwin UNSC Marines"

"No need to be so formal, William" Reginald said approaching me and laying a hand on my shoulder

Rasheed reemerged into the room holding two large briefcases and gave them over to Reginald, who then set them on the console and gestured for me to come closer, when I got next to him he unlatched the first case and opened it, inside was a few silver coloured metal pieces, as he opened the second, it was more of the same, together the total pieces came up to a dozen, I glanced at him and he waved his hand towards them "Touch one"

I reluctantly reached forwards and laid my hand on one of the shiny pieces, it felt warm to the touch before settling to a temperature near indistinguishable from my own, my eyes glanced up to Reginald "so?" my tone was flat

"It reacted to your touch, the material knows that your a living being, and ether warmed or cooled to match your heat right?" he sounded excited

I nodded "what's the significance of that"

"It's reacting to you, or acclimatizing to your presence, it _Knows_ you're human"

I turned to him confused "So you're saying its sentient?"

Reginald's expression fell "No- not exactly, but the material has some internal intelligence, it remembers what shape and function its meant to be when active, we believe this specimen to be a weapon of some sort, but the ONI presence here insisted that these pieces and their power source be separated for individual study"

I pondered for a moment "That might be the other artefact we are looking for"

Alexis walked up to Reginald and me and stated "so, about that door lock, why'd it only open for me"

Reginald laughed "it should open for anyone, it was put in place so Vanessa couldn't just open the door willy-nilly"

I head shot up looking at him "the other three of us couldn't open it, saying it required a 'Genetic Marker' to open, and whatever marker it was that I have a 'reclusive' state"

his laugh stopped abruptly "it never required a marker, it was essentially an over-engineered fingerprint reader" he reached under the desk and pulled out a screen attached to a mechanical arm and placed his hand on it and the pad flashed red, he seemed very surprised "Percival did you change the lock to the door"

A series of mechanical buzzes and screeches echoed from the speakers from all across the room before Percival's voice which was heavily distorted and stressed "Dr What do you require?"

"did you change the lock on the door out" Reginald restated

"Change~ no, refine, hone, upgrade~ yes," Percival's voice said before returning to static

"Unlock the door, please," Reginald said firmly

"I cannot" it responded

"Why not?" Reginald's voice wavered

"I am not able too, it needs a more 'human' touch" its voice distorted

Reginald turned and called everyone over to try their luck at the panel, to a slight surprise to us that all ten of the scientists got the red light of rejection, and like before so did Dmitri and Anders, when my turn came up I got the yellow flash from before.

"Percival, What is the marker that unlocks the door" Reginald called to the AI

"the same one that all Forerunner technology does" Percival static-filled voice said

"And that is" I asked loudly

"The one of a Reclaimer" its voice ebb and flowed, in and out of static

I grabbed Alexis's hand and raised it high "that makes her a Reclaimer"

"That would be correct!" it sounded exited from my deduction

"Then what am I?" I questioned

"you? you are altered, if you weren't You would be the same as her" it said sounding puzzled how I didn't know this

"Altered?~" I started "~the Implant's?"

the room light flickered "yes" Percival responded the room fell silent for a moment as the lights dimmed, "Reclaimer it is time to leave, you have what you came for"

I looked to Reginald who looked deep in contemplation before nodding "I remember his code" he looked to me and spoke clearly "tritium potshots"

Percival's voice started to waned, stuttered and then cleared into a calm refined manner "Dr. Reginald Thurman; How can I assist you"

"open the locked door to the rest of the facility"

"... I cannot, Dr. Reginald Thurman, it seems to be locked to the base requirements of a forerunner object"

"it is locked to us as well it can't be _base_ requirements" he said adding extra strain to the word 'base'

"Recalculating; You are correct, it is locked behind the highest requirements"

Alexis walked past the Dr. and slapped her hand on the pad which flashed green "open the damned door" she said in frustration, and the door opened "everyone out" she said looking around the room

everyone but me filed out of the room stunned by the brevity of the solution I walked over and picked up the two cases and walked out, turning around at the other side of the door, she still held her hand on the pad

"when I let go you will keep the door open for a minute then close it- you will not lock the door, Understood"

"Yes Ma'am" Percival's tone was flat and cold, I watched Alexis quickly jog over and out of the other facility and when she caught up to me she sighed

"credit for your thought" I asked placing an arm in her path

she looked to me, the transparency of her visor let me get a good look at her, she looked worried, but also as if she was in deep contemplation "...tell me, What the fuck just happened?"

I paused slightly taken aback by the question "I'm not sure, the Forerunner must have had a fair some of knowledge of humanity to key out certain genes that would activate their own tech"

we heard an echoed voice from back towards the octagonal room we were just in "both Incorrect and Correct! All humans have access to non-critical technologies, only Reclaimers can use the higher levels" Percival said before starting to laugh, with a glitch, making it all too eerie

"I don't even know if we can believe him in this state," I said, dropping my arm and tilting my head for her to go first, as she walked past me I followed in close pursuit.

Once we had returned up the staircase to the motor pool I plugged Vanessa's chip into a terminal, and she returned to the room, still expecting Percival to eject her from the system, but she calmed down once she was told that had already happened

In a calm collected voice, I asked Vanessa "do you have access to long-range transmitters"

"Yes, I do. if you need a quiet space to make a call just let me know"

I gathered the teams attention, telling Alexis and Anders to 'hold the fort' while myself and Dmitri made a call back to HQ, with a quick nod, we were off, into the quiet back room

"C-2 to firebase, C-2 to firebase, do you read?" I said with a clear deliberate tone

" _aye C-2, firebase reads you"_ the voice of the radioman on the other end came through a slight static

"We have secured our goal, but have to request to speak to the Admiral for further deliberation about something else we found"

" _... Alright, I'll patch you through, until I can do you require airlift out or anything"_ the man's voice said in a slight questioning tone as I notable *beeps* of him pressing keys

"I am unsure at the present moment, currently we are in no need of it"

" _Understood, patching you through"_ the mans voice ended in static

next thing the screen in front of us turning into a live feed from the admiral "Jameson if you have anymore useless complaints I swear to go~ oh, its you C-2, you better not be here to complain" he said looking at the two of us

I straightened in my stance "No sir... I'll hand you off to acting head Dmitri Vasi~" I said attempting to step aside to let Dmitri have the stage, but he grabbed both my shoulders and held me in place

"Admiral, This trooper has a big find to tell you about" Dmitri said with a slight chuckle, which eased my nerve

"Is that so?" the Admirals sight returned to me

"Aye! we found the artifact we were sent to retrieve, in conjuncture to finding a 'armoury' of sorts and... survivors" My tone was as formal as I could muster

"Yes, good work lads~" he paused to scratch his nose "~How much equipment does this 'armoury' have?"

"It has a fair amount of small arms and ammunition, Nearly 100 M808B Main Battle Tanks, 200 M-12 LRV's of varying armaments, and 6 pelicans in the lower bay"

The Admiral glances to a datapad "good, that would double our number of ground vehicles, anything else to report on"

"Confirmed reports of Covenant stragglers, Jackals and Elites" Dmitri piped up

"That so? I'll make sure that that gets passed along, don't want them to get the drop on us" The Admiral said quickly typing into his datapad "anything else? if not we can start sending the clearing team"

"Nothing else to report on... Sir" I said straightening into a salute

"And Goodwin" he paused to see my response "Good work, and I'm sorry for doubting you" and with that, the line cut to static

Dmitri placed a hand on my shoulder "Wasn't so bad was it"

My form drooped "please don't do that to me again, talking to the brass gets me all" I make some vague hand gestures "you know?"

"I saw" He responded before letting his hand loose from my shoulder and turning to head out "Expect the first pelican in 10 minutes, tops. they will want this stuff"

the door closed behind Dmitri as he left and I said quietly to myself "yeah..." I knocked my helmet a few times "Stay focused!" I firmed my tone and nodded before returning to the others

\- Twenty minutes later -

The first load of vehicles had been shipped off, after confirming the reports more of the fleets transports arrived and were loading up the second load, at this rate it would only take about 2 hours to clear the base from the majority of the vehicles and maybe another to clear out all of the gear, as much as I would 'love' to help load pelicans full of gear I found, the brass decided to have us keep eyes out for anything trying to approach the site.

I had taken up a spot on the sixth floor of an old apartment building, scanning the glass plains for potential hostiles, Too bad nothing showed up, after a few hours we were called to return to base, it was almost too easy. I had to be right, hadn't I?

The loud Klaxon siren came across priority call "All Units Emergency, All Units Emergency, This is not a drill, Twelve, repeat, Twelve Covenant ships have exited slipspace on the far side of the sector, with the following identifiers; 4 CCS class, 1 DDS class, 6 SDV class, and 1 CPV-class. All Units prepare for imminent Covenant forces, May God have mercy on our souls" the voice said before the Klaxon returned.

\- meanwhile on the Millennium -

"Are you ready to deploy?" An officer said resting his hand on the door frame when the lack of response from the two armour clad warriors came, the man's voice sharpened " **Ninety-Nine, One-One-Eight,** Are you ready"

The smaller of the two warriors glanced up "we've been ready for two days, just point us to the enemy" Her voice resonating in the room

"Alright Ninety-Nine, if you're so ready to go, get in your pod- the Covenant just entered the system and you two will likely be deployed to help ground forces" the officer glanced at her

"My name is Rebekah" her voice was strained "we're not just numbers"

The man didn't even acknowledge her response and just jutted his hand for her to move

She hissed at him when she stood and pushed past him, he barely even reacted to the Ton of flesh and metal that nearly pushed him over, the second warrior stood and left in silence, the two entered the drop room, and in near silence entered their drop pods, and waited for the drop.

"Hey Heath," Rebekah said looking across to his pod

"Yeah?" he responded causally

"see you on the ground!" she said excitedly

* * *

 **Well, another cliffhanger... but it kinda just happened.**

 **So for a semi-update: there might not be a chapter next month due to me running into writer's block / feeling burnt out, I'll do my best to attempt to post a chapter next month, but please don't lynch me if I don't**

 **Please feel free to drop a review, favourite or follow, every one of these helps me develop the story knowing that people like what they are reading.**

 **also feel free to read the first chapter of the side story at: /s/12772545/1/The-Sargasso-Chronicle**

 **As Always,**

 **Semper Fi**

 **LoyalODST aka William**


	18. Ch17 New Assignments

**Welcome back to Brothers In Arms: Blood Brothers, It has been a while, Read the Authors Notes at the end to get a better understanding of what happened.**

 **Please remember the OC's of Carnage are TheArizona's, While any new characters are my own.**

 **Microsoft holds the copyright to the Halo Franchise**

 **Anyways, back to the story.**

* * *

New Assignments

00:46 local time, 11th of August 2550

Forward Operating Base 'York'

Sargent William Goodwin

The Pelican landed heavily on the pad, a dozen marines disembarked and one started hailing other troopers to fill the transport with supplies, it had only been a handful of minutes since the covenant fleet entered system, and the base was turned on its head, everything we had just moved into the base had to now be moved out of the base and out into the hills, if the covenant finds a centre of operations they'd destroy it with no restraint, spreading out and taking to guerrilla tactics might keep them from settling in too much, and if they destroy a stockpile it would be but one of many, instead of the whole operation.

We joined in hauling crates and giving orders, countless lives depended on how fast we acted here and now, we worked throughout the entire night and well into daybreak, soon the firebase was nearly just a pocket fort with a few turreted positions and a bare-bones crew, radio reports told similar stories, we stashed all of our new amour in somewhere around 50 hidden stashes, each with a complement of troops guarding them, and dozens more smaller stashes with ammo and weapons across the countryside, and for a world that was glassed, there was a surprising amount of life left, a few forests, savannas and even a few freshwater lakes, the hills provided enough holes for the whole task force to hide... for a while at least.

The situation in orbit didn't fare much better, the fleet was forced to withdraw from its near orbit and into the 'nearby' asteroid belt, before going radio silent, The _Millennium's_ last known location marked it very low orbit around Sargasso before it vanished from sensors.

 _the game had begun_

 _10:03_

we had gotten about an hours rest since we holed into the 'central command' stash, it was one of the few stations with high power radio transmitters and receivers, it also held the local lead officer First Lieutenant Kursk, who had been pulled in all directions since we left the FOB York, we approached the radio tent, with Kursk _loudly_ arguing with a voice on the other end, as we entered the tent his hand went up to us, and I took a half step before he pointed at us and then to a group of chairs, and we quietly took our seats, I took the time to listen in to the conversation

" _our areal scouting shows activity in the mountains and we need to send someone up to check on it"_

"What do you **MEAN** the mountains they are hundreds of kilometres away, How can you expect me to send away teams under these circumstances!"

" _We know you're in tight wraps at the moment, but you have to have a few hands that can be sent up, And if you expect to keep your position, you will do as ordered"_

"I- Yes sir"

" _What about the C-2 Team, as far as reports go they are with you and don't have outstanding orders, they're more than qualified"_

"I- I have them here I'll relay the orders"

" _Good_ _Millennium_ _out"_

Kursk fell into his seat and let out a deep sigh, "you four up for another drive?"

"Spooks got orders or the Brass?" I asked with a subtle head jut towards him

Kursk's voice was gravelly "Both" he took a sip from his mug on the desk "-Ack, cold coffee" He set the mug back down before rubbing his face roughly "alright. There's a crashed covenant cruiser up in the New-Corinth mountains, and The Officer on the Millennium insist on us sending a team up to scout the area, and maybe even mess with the aliens if all goes south, Apparently its important enough to ask for you by Name"

"Sounds like we're in" Dmitri looked towards us then back to Kursk

"I'm not sending you up with just a hog this time-"

I cut him off "Two hogs?"

I watched him crumple into his hands, down his coffee, and look at me with daggers "I'm giving you a Mongoose as a side, not because _you_ can't all fit into a hog, but because the spooks are sending a fifth with you, and like hell are five of you fitting in one hog"

"fifth" we murmured looking between each other

Just then the tent door flipped open and a small framed woman walked in and looked to us, she was easily 10 inches shorter than me, and without skipping a beat, I turned to Kursk and uttered "who's the kid"

She spoke up in an authoritative voice that didn't fit her demeanour at all "I'm right here Asshole, Chances are I'm older than you!"

"36," I said in at 'that so' tone

"Dammit, got a few on me, but still, why does everyone think I'm a child" she moved to stand across from where we were seated

"It might be due to you looking like a 14-year-old, who found an army uniform and tried playing soldier," I said in a hushed tone

she looked like she was going to respond but Kursk spoke up first "Enough!" Giving us both harsh glances

we both sunk a little bit "Aye" "yes sir" we said in tandem

"C-2, This is Kathleen Roux, She's the one the Sp- the one ONI sent to go with the away team"

She approached us and stuck her hand out right in front of me, she had her nose turned up to me, So I stood and took it in my hand and gave it a firm shake

"My apologies Ms Roux," I said releasing my grasp

"Kat. Call me Kat" she said noticing that our eyes had met, she slapped my hand and turned away

I turned to the others with a confused face, walking to the back of the group and sitting

"You two done with your childish games yet" Kursk asked, and Kat turned to him looking like she had a LOT to say, but then dropped her hand and sat down "Good" a holo-map appeared from the small projector in his desk "a pelican should be able to get you as far as here" A red dot appeared on the map, a fair distance to the North "from there you should be able to drive to here" Another dot appeared "and then start your scouting run in this area" a large faded blue half circle appeared covering a swath of the map, Including the downed cruiser and up into the mountains.

"you can't be expecting 5 people covering that large an area in... any reasonable amount of time," I asked

Kursk sipped on his empty cup before responding "No, we're not, just looking for signs of activity, reports say that the crashed cruiser still holds a garrison of a few dozen up to a few hundred Elites, and we would really like to know what and if they're up to anything, if you come in contact, DO NOT ENGAGE-" He stressed this fact "I can't stop you from defending yourselves but don't go looking for a battle, if you can run, do it" he looked at us with a firm glance and the group nodded

He continued "Good! after scouting, Our friends at ONI want to search an old outpost from when we still owned the planet, and Kathleen will tell you what you're looking for... Won't you"

She stood, straightened her uniform and spoke in a clear, informative voice "Unfortunately, Lieutenant, it's strictly 'need-to-know', and unless you are coming with us, I can't tell you even if I wanted to"

"Well then if there's nothing more to discuss, get restocked and get going," Kursk said waving us off before looking to the desk seeing a flashing light, he sighed, put on the headset and pushed the button "Kursk here what's the situation..."

we left quietly and headed to the motor pool, the logistics officer just nodded us in, the warthog was already ready, fully laden with supplies, and the mongoose was walked up to meet us.

I jokingly asked, "who's riding the 'goose?"

Dmitri slapped my shoulder "you, and miss red here"

I sighed "should have guessed it'd be me... How are we going to get these both attached to the pelican?"

"The pelican crew said something about knowing what to do," one of the logistics officers said before signing a datapad

"well, that just fills me with confidence," I said in a sarcastic manner

"only one way to find out," Anders said climbing up into the warthog's passenger seat

I sighed again and mounted the mongoose

A few minutes later at the Pelican, the crew did indeed have a plan, load the Mongoose in the troop compartment and tying it down, and the Warthog on the external clamp like normal, Roux and I would be sitting in the troop bay with the Mongoose, while everyone else was combat ready in the Warthog, once we were all in our seats the engines flared up and we were off

 _Nearly an hour later,_

The Pelican landed heavily, I watched the Warthog drop from the rear mount, I threw open my harness and quickly unsecured the Mongoose from its straps and rolled it out of the troop compartment, Roux in close pursuit, at the end of the ramp was a half foot drop to the barren ground, I stepped down dragging the ATV along, as soon as we were disembarked the Pelican lifted off in a rust coloured dust cloud and headed back towards the base' I stretched then mounted the light vehicle, when Roux embarked she wrapped her arms under my arms, I let go of the controls removing her hands, before placing my hands back on the controls and saying

"hands on shoulders or the grips please" my voice was monotone

"Is this about earlier, I've been told I'm hot-headed and tend to blow up on people, and I'm sorry"

I rubbed the side of my helmet my tone loosening "As much as it is that, it's _**Not**_ _that_ , it's me; continuing to be annoyed at something small"

"something as small as me, reaching around your torso?" she said with a laugh

"Yeah, kind of..." my voice trailing off

"Oh~ you have a girl back home don't you" she prodded my side before laying her hands on my shoulders "Could have just asked me not to, _lover-boy_ "

"don't call me that, and 'home' is way closer than you think"

she glances to the Warthog "Oh, oh, OH!~ She's the girl back home-" gesturing to Alexis "-That makes sense, she's left her Comms on, and she's fuming at me..."

I watched Alexis reach up to her helmet and pause before turning "my mic's not on!" she said confused

Roux laughed "I know, I figured you two out on the way out here... Long history huh?"

we both paused looking to her "its the way you talk and look at each other, I'm not wrong, right?" we both nodded our heads and she quietly responded "called it... Right, about this scouting mission it shouldn't be more than routine, let's try not to get caught-" she paused to look around "-and right now it'd be easy to spot us, so lets get moving"

With that we were off, we drove along our planned route, looking for anything remotely covenant, hours passed, idle chit-chat kept the ride from being agonizingly quiet, we regrouped at sundown and parked the vehicles under some dense foliage, and took turns on watch, I was the first one up at the break of dawn, I stood at the edge of the trees looking out to a vast barren field, further into the distance was the glistening shimmer of the aftermath of glassing, I let out a deep audible sigh.

"You know standing in the open is really bad for a stealth mission" Roux announced startling me, before looking to the distance "Awful thing really"

"Yeah... we're told that worlds are completely glassed, then why isn't this one?" I asked offhandedly

"I'll probably get in trouble telling you this but- as far as we know~" she paused "~amusing the covenant have the same amount of ships we had at the beginning of the war, it would take them 30 years to completely glass an Earth-sized world" she said looking towards me then back out to the distance

"30 years?"

"Well, That's if their ships can maintain a glassing beam 24/7 until its done- having to boil away the oceans would take most of that time, that's also amusing that when they are actively glassing a world they're doing it as fast as they can"

"How'd you get those numbers?" I asked sceptically

"we've done a lot of first-hand observations, to say the least," her voice turned sour and sad

I let out a solemn "oh" remembering of the countless worlds lost over the years, I attempted to change the subject "We should wake the others and get moving"

"No, not yet" she grabbed my arm physically stopping me from turning "There's never time to relax and enjoy the sights anymore, A few minutes right now can't hurt; can it?"

I stood frozen for a moment thinking to myself _'she's lived a life totally embroiled in war, she's rarely experienced the calming bliss of peace-time, How'd she kept up with the chaos of war for however long she'd experienced it, I'd never know... but she's right a few minutes can't hurt, not since the mission is put on hold for quick rest'_ I nodded and sat down "okay, a few minutes, then we get back to work"

She sat down next to me "you remind me a lot of my brother..."

I couldn't help but let out a little chuckle "Insult you into anger then pretend it never happened?"

"Well, if you put it that way... I meant you're kind, serious when you need to be, and you... just feel like family" she let out a small sigh

"Would you be surprised if I told you I get that a lot... I just tend to fit in, doing my best to not cause issues"

"Couldn't have seen that from our first interaction" she joked

"I was a little hot headed at the time, high stress, little sleep, you know the spiel"

she nodded "yeah, I know... We should get back to the mission, its been nice"

I watched her walk back towards the camp and thought to myself _'Yeah, I guess it has'_

* * *

 **So, It's been a while, and I owe an apology for being gone way, way longer than intended, back in May I stopped writing due to a few reasons, the main one being I didn't know where to bring the story, or how to lay out the events to where I wanted it, and it ended up driving a wedge between me enjoying writing and me writing because I promised a new chapter at the end of the next month, and it broke my will to write at all, so I set writing aside to 'get away' from it and 'focus' on something else for a while, and I ended up slapping the label 'writers block' on the issue and ignoring it.**  
 **Summer didn't bring me much in the way of bettering myself or recovery, as I travelled to often to get 'settled in' and In the middle of summer, A close family friend passed away, it took the wind out of my sails, and left me... lost, to say the least, its been a long time recovering but I think the wait was necessary, if I had rushed back into writing, I might have given up on it altogether.**  
 **Fall so far hasn't been too rough, besides getting sick and still falling in and out of the writing fervour, but I can say, with some confidence, I'm not giving up anytime soon**

 **I'll admit I'm a little disappointed I couldn't get the 'triple threat' edition out as I had planned, but I should have another one done relatively soon, so keep your eyes out for the update.**

 **On another note, I want to thank everyone who's read the story, and who continue to stop by and read what I post, and getting us to nearly 2,000 views, it has me ecstatic, and renewed my investment in this story, I've said it before, when I started this, I only expected a few people who read the old story to read it, now it's so many, its so exciting to see, and I hope to see that number continue to grow.**

 **Thank you, So very much.**

 **Please feel free to drop a review, favourite or follow, every one of these helps me develop the story knowing that people like what they are reading.**

 **also feel free to read the side story at: /s/12772545/1/The-Sargasso-Chronicle**

 **As Always,**

 **Semper Fi**

 **LoyalODST aka William**


	19. Ch18 New Corinth

**Welcome back to Brothers in arms: Blood Brothers, Please remember the OC's of Carnage are TheArizona's, While any new characters are my own**

 **Microsoft holds the copyright to the Halo Franchise**

 **Quick Apology if chapter seems... disjointed, proper AN at the end**

* * *

New Corinth

12th of August 2550

Several Kilometers south of New Corinth and the New Corinthian Mountain Range

Sargent William Goodwin

I sat at the base of the tree for a few moments longer, looking back out to the wastes, I stood up and jogged to catch up to Roux, as we got closer to camp I overtook her and fast walked into camp in an intended jest to say 'I won', but in my haste to lighten the mood, I snagged my foot on the front wheel of the mongoose and fell in a pile on the ground below, the sudden and loud noise woke the others, all three of them jumping to their feet weapons in hand or at the ready, I stood up and dusted myself off, I looked up to eyes of ill-content, I hastily apologized, and started the preparations to begin the mission again.

It didn't take long before we got back to business, we separated from one another to cover more ground, some sparse conversation cut into the dead air that felt deafening over the droning of the engines, I kept scanning the horizon and hillsides for any abnormality, a few hours of driving made every little snippet of talking a blessing, we ended up on a plain of non-vegetated earth the plains narrowed to barely a kilometre wide, A thick wooded area waved along the left side of the path, and a moderate hill flanked the right side, it was bare beyond what looked like the remnants of a landslide.

Just then a brief glint caught my attention, focusing on it the silver-purple reflection caused my heart to sink as a cold flush filled my head, seconds started feeling longer, instinctively I gripped the brakes and squeezed them as hard as I could, the sudden deceleration must have thrown off the shooters aim as a blindingly vibrant purple lance coursed within the foot of space ahead of me, I released the break and cranked the throttle, tearing up the umber earth. "SHOOTER ON THE HILL, IN THE ROCKS" I Shouted at the top of my lungs before making some evasive maneuvers, as the second lance hit the ground behind us, Kathleen lit up the rocks with her rifle, knowing that a few rounds wouldn't deter a dedicated sniper from taking another shot, I yanked the bar, and tore off towards the treeline, seeing another pair of shots bracketing us to either side, I opened the throttle, and shot into the forest, a tree exploding into splinters as a lance struck it barely missing us as we darted into the treeline.

I heard Kat through the COM " _C2 This is Kathleen, We've made contact with a single contact armed with a Type-50 rifle Sys- a Beam rifle, we have broken line of sight, Unsure if the shooter is alone, or if they're following us, rendezvous as linked coordinates, Over."_

" _Reading you Kat, moving to location"_ Dmitri's voice echoed through my helmet

I glanced to the corner of my HUD where a new status appeared: _'New Objective: Reach target coordinates'_ followed by a compass pointing towards the destination, I decided to slow back down to avoid the chance of damaging our means of transport once I figured we were far enough into the woods, The cold flush left my head.

Kat seemed to be angry, Absentmindedly I asked "what's got you so riled up", That was the last nail in the coffin

"your fucking kidding me right, We were just being shot at, why are you so bloody calm about it" She shouted so loudly I heard her through our helmets

It felt off to be shouted at, my voice caught in my throat for a moment losing its cheery tone "You- you get used to it after a while, or maybe I've lost enough to not care about it anymore" After saying this I started feeling anger building in my chest

I could feel the genuine tone shift in her voice "I'm sorry, I forget just how long people have been out here, I'm still not used to being on the front-line"

My tone hardened "Maybe you should be." Within an instant a cold spike flooded my head before a flurry of voices talking became deafening screams and shouts, I shook my head, the cold vanishing, my voice now soft and quiet "Sorry, I shouldn't have done that"

Her voice met my original hardness "Pull over; Sargent"

I hesitated to answer

"Now" Her tone unwavering

I let the throttle loose and brought the vehicle to a stop

"Trade spots with me, I'll drive the rest of the way, Can't have my only other pair of eyes burning himself out, now can I?" Her voice was less harsh but still hard enough to hold its authority

I relinquished the vehicle to her, and got into the less favourable spot, the remainder of the ride to the rendezvous was quiet yet so loud, my eyes were constantly scanning the woods, pictures of combat long since past filling every nook I looked to, a fighting retreat turned to a last stand, and falling into a full shattered retreat, the last remnants of this scene now is overgrown vehicles, the drab coloured armour of dead marines and the occasional bright coloured plates of Sangheili' combat harnesses.

"ever been to a battleground right after the fights over?" Roux said, but she continued before I could answer "I haven't, but I bet it's like the feeling that seeing a battle long past, like the one we're driving through, but much, much worse"

"I'd have to say the direct aftermath has a morbid air to it, ever so much more if it was a battle lost..."

"Yeah; How many times you have seen that kind of scene?" She asked

"Just the once" I replied softly

"Care to tell me where? I might have heard of it"

"Here on Sargasso, it was... bad"

"Don't think I've read to much on The previous battle here." her voice changed to curiosity "How many we talking about, triple digits or am I way off the mark"

"excuse me?" I asked caught off guard

"Battle losses- you know in that one you saw"

"Triple digits easy, possibly more... and that's just the Marines, Civilians... quad digits, likely more."

her tone became hushed and trailed off "Jesus..."

"We lost a lot here, I bet we lost over 60% of the fighting force, But we did get a fair amount of the populous off world"

"Glad to hear that it wasn't a slaughter," he said as she slowed the mongoose to a halt, near the rendezvous "It shouldn't be too long before the others get here"

she was right it didn't take more than a couple of minutes before the warthog whirred to a stop nearby, we then regrouped and rerouted our path, Kat insisted we checked on an old town before checking on that downed cruiser, It's not like we had much choice but we agreed, She showed up an orbital photo, and the town seemed less than deserted making our path set firmly in that direction, so we remounted or vehicles and headed to the town, This time we stuck together, we didn't want a repeat of the last time.

We took extra precaution when coming upon the town, leaving our vehicles a bit further before scouting on foot, we stayed in the treeline and kept low to avoid being spotted, Anders and I crawled to the edge of the treeline to get a proper view with our rifles, I crawled out first levelling my rife to the town, and to my surprise I saw more than ramshackle barricades and wanton destruction, I saw a rather impressive fortification which included a set of four watchtowers, all situated inside a wall, To be honest, it looked like the leftovers of a Forward Operation Base hastily rebuilt, but when you expected nothing but rubble it was a sight to see.

Anders then crawled out, levelling his rifle and scanning the towers and walls he stopped "you're going to want to see this" he said as a small window of his scopes view appeared in the corner of my HUD, taking a good look at it there was _something_ in one of the towers, it looked vaguely human, Anders then focused his scope and pushed the zoom to its max, the outline became crisp, showing a man, in his early 50's perhaps, standing against one of the beams bracing the roof, smoking from a pipe, he appeared to have a very stripped down DMR, or maybe an antique rifle of some sort strapped to his back, and an M6 at his side, it was stripped down to just the base weapon system.

We watched him for a few minutes, he scanned back and forth, a few times his gaze would match ours, making me think he saw us, but at this range there was no chance of that, it became more so when a younger man climbed into the tower and the older man waved his arm in our direction, before the younger man patted his shoulder and pointed over his shoulder, the older man relieved his weapons and descended the tower

"changing of the watch?" I questioned

"perhaps" Anders

it didn't take long before all four towers were maned, it was a bit past midday so maybe they had a period of downtime in between watch cycles

"Do you think they'd shoot on sight?" I asked looking back to Roux and the others

"one way to find out..." she said passing me a small branch with a white albeit dirty rag "... go find out, if they don't shoot at you, we don't shoot at them..." she paused "...and leave your mic on, just in case"

I sighed, gave my rifle to Dmitri and crawled out of the bushes and made strides towards the outpost, I glanced back to a nod from Roux, and a thumbs up from Anders, I walked forwards; each step feeling like I was climbing an ever steeper mountain with a metric ton on my shoulders, I had made it halfway before I knew it, time froze as I looked to see the towers now with many silhouettes in each of them, taking a deep breath I pressed on, raising the flag giving it a slight wave ever so often, as I got closer the incoherent chatter from the towers got louder to the point that if they were speaking English I would've been able to understand them

"Páfsi!" one of the men in the tower yelled, the sudden shout caused me to stop, moments later a cold flush flooded the back of my head

"you don't happen to speak Greek do you?" Illya asked me quietly

' _no'_ I thought before looking up to the tower as the man yelled another command I didn't understand

Illya dropped back in "drop your sidearm, quickly", to which I did, she then used my external speakers to say in Greek "any English speakers with you?"

The group murmured a lot with a few things that sounded angry

"...Those were insults" Illya whispered to me

' _I figured, but thanks'_ I thought, before rubbing the underside of my helmet with a closed fist, trying to stand as least threatening as I could think of, It didn't take long before a group of three walked around the corner and the man in the lead was the old man we had spotted on the wall before, he looked angry, He walked right up to me and grabbed my breastplate pulling me towards him then pushing me back before he pointed at me and angrily said

"We told Shaw to keep his men in the land across the big river to the east, He knows what we said we'd do to anyone he sent this way, Ales told me two of Shaw's men bearing your markings heading up the valley, What do you say for yourself!"

I took a second to think before I spoke, "Sir, with all due respect, I don't know a Shaw-"

"Bullshit! Shaw's men still wear their old armour, and he regularly sent scouts like you ahead of a raid"

I reiterated "I do not know a Shaw. We just landed here less than a week ago"

"landed? no one has had a flyer since the first year, one can't fly without fuel, so, stop lying to me"

"I'm from a UNSC fleet that arrived in the system in the last few days, and wait a second you were the ones that shot at us?!"

"Of course we did, up until now you were one of Shaw's, But that doesn't matter-" he said waving it off like it was nothing "- gives me another reason not to care what you think because The UNSC doesn't rule us anymore their jurisdiction doesn't work out here anymore since they abandoned us They can stay off our rock and take their enemies with 'em"

"we're not done talking about being shot at, but other things are more pressing, I think we would leave very soon but The Covenant returned to the system, I would hazard a guess they're likely looking for something they missed the first time and when they find out they missed some of us, they won't pause on their attack, anyone who's fought them knows they don't"

"Boy, I fought those Hinge-headed bastards for 20 years, I know how they act, The UNSC sure cares about its veterans if they would just leave them, but its not like you would know anything about the fighting here"

He struck a nerve, I couldn't help but get angry "I lost _everything_ to defend this world, don't push me around like I don't know anything"

His demeanour changed to match my hostility "You... You're one of them traitors, abandoning the people of this world, you left them to die like the rest of those yellow-bellied 'Marines' led by those ONI goons"

A cold pang ran through my body "I was dragged of this world, I would have stayed and killed every single one of them if I could have"

"Then what stopped you from staying"

my tone softened drastically "Corpsmen and Medics mostly, Surviving a blue on blue air strike, and being wounded holding the line for the last civilian transport to make its getaway"

"you held the line on final departures?"

"Aye, I did, Albeit the air strike came after that"

"I may have misjudged your own, reports said major sections were pulling out before civilian ships were away"

"Many were recalled in the final hours, only the ones not actively defending civ's pulled out, countless groups kept fighting as the last transports both civ and UNSC fled the system, ...We thought anyone left behind was as good as dead"

"I guess that's fair to think, we're lucky to have survived after everything, the Covenant pulled out around a week after, looked like they were chasing something by how quickly they up and left, They left a lot behind though"

"Like?"

"The Feathered Jackals... Skirmishers, there's at least a few hundred of them roaming the planet, we combat their want of our 'shinnies' by keeping our tools dull looking, and keeping an eye out for packs of them roaming nearby-" he paused for a few seconds "And some Elites, They seem attached to their cruiser, however very few seen beyond that area... They use to have the yappy bastards; the Grunts around, the sods ran out of gas and choked out, I don't even think they buried them, the others probably picked them clean where they dropped"

"I guess that's one less thing to worry about, If you'll give me a moment I need to ask my CO what's our plan from here," I said turning to the side before switching to my TEAMCOM Channel "So, Any choice words or plans?"

Roux responded quickly "I think we should try and convince them to help out the local command, especially given they seem driven to defend their homes, if they don't want to, might be wise to advise them to hole up until the Covenant clears out"

"Aye, Will do" I switched back to the open mic "Well, my CO asks me to plead of your service in defence on your world, or at least to hole up until this blows over"

"UNSC Asking some old CMA Militiamen and a Gross and a half of Ex-Civilians to fight their battles, quaint"

"We're not asking for you to fight any battles, it's more you know this land better than any of us do, and we're asking to be our guides, And a Gross and a half?"

"Boy don't your ears work, just over 200" he swung his hand to the air behind him "250 including us Militia folk"

"I- I see, well what do you say?"

"I'd have to get back to you on tha-" he was cut off by my COM lighting up

"GET INSIDE, NOW, COVENANT INBOUND" Roux's voice came through crystal clear, instinctively I went for my weapon meeting an empty holster, so a knelt to grab my pistol before lightly pushing the older man towards the entrance

"If you want me to be any help get me something other than this pistol," I said as two men lowered the improvised Portcullis before closing the door with a clatter, the older Gentleman brought me into a small hole in the wall style building, before pushing a heavily stripped down and modified L96AW

"Better know how to shoot" he grumbled

I couldn't help but pause at the Archaic nature of the weapon, and how much someone could do to a weapon given enough time, I climbed up onto the wall and took place amongst the men bracing for the incoming battle.

* * *

 **I had not intended on this taking 4-5 ish months to get finished, I apologise for the 'extra' long wait, but if things keep on the 'up and up' I should be able to get chapters out more regularly... or at least that's the hope.**

 **Anyways Thanks for waiting on me, I hope this chapter was a good read, despite how disjointed it feels for me to re-read it.**

 **What do you guys want to see, if you want to see something feel free to PM or list in a review the thing/s you'd like to see, and I'll mull over using your suggestions, and if I use them I'll credit you in the AN of the chapter they appear in.**

 **Please feel free to drop a review, favourite or follow, every one of these helps me develop the story knowing that people like what they are reading.**

 **As Always,**

 **Semper Fi**

 **LoyalODST aka William**


	20. Ch19 Holding OldTown

**Welcome back to Brothers in arms: Blood Brothers, Please remember the OC's of Carnage are TheArizona's, While any new characters are my own,** **AN at the end**

 **Microsoft holds the copyright to the Halo Franchise**

* * *

Holding Oldtown

12th of August 2550

'Old-town' CMA holdout Base of Operations

Sargent William Goodwin

The first sign on contact was a snap from the distance and the man beside me being pushed from the wall, I glanced down to him; a shoulder hit, he'd live. The man to my other side like many others on the wall got into cover their faces showing the signs of people fresh to combat, should have guessed that they wouldn't have had seen much in the way of fighting.

I hefted my rifle and took aim, the iron sights were old and felt odd to use, their numbers were even in an old measurement system making it so much more difficult to use, But once I caught on, I affirmed my aim and spotted the enemy; Skirmishers, They had Older UNSC weapons too, they must have looted the dead or traded for them, either way, they were hostile and needed pacifying.

I squeezed the trigger, it felt heavy but the gun let out a resounding _**Crack**_ when it fired and downrange was very angry yet wounded Skirmisher, I moved to cycle the bolt but the gun had already beat me to it and cycled a new round into the chamber, The owner of this weapon managed to brute force a bolt action into a semi-automatic, I didn't have the time to find out how the owner had done this, all I knew is that I had one less thing to worry about, I sent another round down range taking the Skirmisher I had wounded out.

I turned to the man who was cowering and in my most authoritative voice I could muster I shouted, "Come on lad, Get some rounds down range or get out of the fucking way so someone else can!" The shout must have been like pressing reset for him because he got to his knees and aimed down range before firing a burst of rather ineffective fire "Good work, Even if you can't hit them, you might be able to scare them off, Keep it up!"

Taking my own words to use I took aim again and snapped another round down range, some return fire followed suit and struck my right pauldron, giving me a good shove, I took cover before sending yet another round down range.

A loud explosion rocked the wall, a few people fell from the wall form the direction the explosion came from, 'frag' I thought to myself as a sound of something bouncing off metal and I saw a small round shape land at my foot, I instinctively punted the device, it flew for about a second and exploded I felt several pieces hit armour and heard a few people yell out in pain or in reaction to the noise, I didn't have time to think, turning back to the combat I saw a few dozen figures downrange, So I returned to cover and aimed in.

' _No... no It couldn't be, why would they be there'_ I thought as my rifle lined up with the form of a man, then I saw the muzzle flash of his weapon, and then the sound of bullets rattling up the wall ' _why are humans working with them?'_ Focusing I saw ODST armour it was well worn, insignia burnished away, colours faded, and stained with deep browns and reds

I heard a shout from the tower closest to me "ITS SHAWS SCAVERS, HE'S TEAMED UP WITH THE BIRDS"

It then clicked with me, We didn't come in from the east, we came in from the south-west, the old man's man Ales _did_ see one of Shaw's men, Us being here was just coincidence, The only question left was Who shot at us then?

I took a shot at the man and watched as his head snapped back from the impact, but he didn't go down, he pulled off his helmet and tossed it aside, I went to finish the job but the weapon clicked, ' _empty'_ I thought, quickly pulling out my pistol and zoomed in on the man, He looked grizzled and scarred, I took the shot, and red mist sprayed from him as he went down. I couldn't help but pull into cover and retch at my action, it's not the first time I've killed a man, but never with such clarity as being zoomed right in on it. A pit formed in my chest, _'I didn't even hesitate'_ I couldn't shake the feeling that It was wrong to have done it.

I took a breath of recomposure and snapped into 'autopilot' ' _No thinking, only action'_ I thought to myself, before reloading the rifle and firing down range, downing a skirmisher but a spray from another man on the wall took it out, I took another two shots at one of Shaw's men, he went down in a heap, but I doubted that he was truly downed, so I emptied the last two rounds into him and watching as he coiled into a ball gripping his midsection, I readied a new clip and finished him off with a solid round to the helm, Following it up with taking out a pair of skirmishers who had taken up firing positions in foxholes, It started to feel like the rifle was under powered as it had a hard time piercing even the Skirmishers chest plates, so as I emptied the mag, I switched out to my sidearm and stepped out of cover to take a shot, when an uncomfortably shiny glare flashed across my visor, and I ducked to cover, and watched as a few feet down the wall a man was pierced through the cover by a vibrant purple lance, and my heart sank and the only thought that crossed my brain was 'Sniper'

Then I heard the unmistakable sound of a Warthog and its iconic LAAG, followed by a lesser symphony of Dmitri's machine gun Sasha, and the loud cracks of Anders' Sniper rifle, I glanced to where the sound came from and smiled, before shouting "CAVALRY IS HERE HOLD THE LINE" and then I sent a few more rounds down range, as the hog entered the field Skirmishers and Shaw's men fled quite a few easily getting mopped up by the LAAG

"Get this gate open" I heard Roux yell over the fire, so I got down off of the wall and helped get the door open, the pulled the warthog in and in followed the mongoose, tied to the Hitch, we uncoupled the smaller craft and wheeled it into a spot out of the way, Dmitri tossed me my DMR and MA5

"Lost something" he joked as he disembarked from the hog and took up a position suppressing the enemy from the gate until it was firmly closed

Anders didn't even pause he clambered up into one of the towers

"Good to see you Red, but your the closest thing we have to cavalry, and they don't have any cover, this-" I patted the hog "-Should be out there"

she sighed at me "We would be but there is one big thing that caused me to scramble to get in here"

"HERE IT COMES" Alexis shouted from the turret, as she brought it around

"Bring it down!" Roux barked back

the noise was ill-mistakable as its pronged silhouette flew over, _'a spirit drop-ship'_ I thought as I jumped to action, climbing back up onto the wall, watching round after round punch into the bottom of the craft to little effect, as the craft turned to face us a pair of silver smoke trails impacted the centre of the craft, it didn't seem affected at first but it listed to port and entered a slow flat spin it got lower and lower until the port prong dug into the ground, it dug a trench and then it got caught on something, the craft's rear then raised higher and stood vertical from the ground, it teetered before it fell onto its back.

The air was silent for a second before the door on the far side must have opened because two dozen humans poured out of the craft, taking up positions in the cover created by the crash, they were soon followed by a dozen Skirmishers sprinting from the craft in what I could only assume was an attempt to put us in a crossfire, the remainder of the first wave rejoined new wave by getting dug into the trench.

An authoritative voice boomed from the trench "Give up Aias, we have you surrounded, and I got more Feather-head flyers just waiting for the command to crush this town of yours"

I watched the old man move behind his cover "Dammit Shaw we had a deal!"

"The feather-heads gave me a better deal, and I really tried to stick to ours, but there's something too valuable in having free workers, and a surplus of weapons"

"Don't you have a brain, the Birds will just turn on you when you're done, they've done it before, they'll do it again"

"Look, I tried playing nice with you, you keep refusing to trade with us, and shot at us on sight, Really shouldn't be shooting at your neighbours; Ales knows what happens when you do. trust me when I say he didn't really need that hand or his eyes, and you should have heard the sound he made when his arm popped from its socket-"

"Enough! Give him back and leave us alone" Aias Shouted

"Oh, We would have given him back, but the feather-heads didn't leave enough of him to give back honestly, and No I think we'll keep this up, you're bound to run out of ammo or able-bodied fighters sooner or later"

Aias got quiet "Blasted, we'll be all be dead within an hour if this keeps up"

I crouch walked over to Aias, and Whispered "we can hold the line here, while you get your people out of here"

he gave me a half disgusted half shocked look "and leave you to them, they'll kill you, or worse feed you to their new allies"

I took a breath and sighed "Its better than having another massacre of my hands"

"I, we, can't just leave you to them" he responded

"I'm sure we can manage, and I'd need you to get yours back to command, help get revenge for this whole thing"

Roux cut in "I have an Ace up our sleeve, it'd buy us the time you need to get away"

Aias looked into my visor his face contorted into one of both grief and understanding "we'd never be able to repay you"

"it's our job sir, We do this for a living" I smiled "now get yours to the back wall, we'll keep them distracted, we'll launch one of our flares to signal the go ahead"

He nodded then he and the wounded left the wall, as we took positions, many didn't leave their posts waiting for the firefight to erupt again, Roux had set up a small radio pack and looked to be honing the dials, I heard her call in a 'favour' but didn't catch the details, I bet she called up an airstrike to rattle our enemy into submission.

Roux linked back into our headsets "alright then, we'll be on our own for about fifteen minutes our help should have arrived by then" without hesitation a timer popped up on our HUD under objectives

"So what are we going to do until then?"

"Keep them off of the Civ's, Hold them in their holes, or kill them outright, its the only options we have"

"Aye," we said in near unison as we took up defensive positions

"Not giving up Aias? I can willingly keep killing your boys, every minute you waste I'll add an hour to list of torture for what's left of your people, I'm sure the boys back home would love fresh women"

I cleared my throat and mimicked Aias's voice to the best of my ability "You'll have to kill all of us before you ever get your hands on any us"

"Aias old lad, you sound scared, we both know I can keep throwing men at you until every last one of you are dead, but you know that doing that will force my hand into doing awful things to your 'poor, fragile, ladies' their not safe in these walls, no one is"

I shuddered at the thoughts of what Shaw would do if we didn't keep them at bay "What are your terms" I said as 'capitulated' as I could think

"You ARE giving up? my terms are simple, you open the gates, you lay down your arms, you hand over those outsiders you're protecting, and you and your people work under me forever"

I glanced to the timer '13:27' and peaked out of my cover and looked into the field scanning for that sniper "Any room for negotiations?" I asked

"Negotiations, Pah! your surrendering, you don't get to counter the terms"

I rolled to the other side of the tower and dropped the charade to act as 'myself' against Shaw, Anders gave me a half-cocked look of 'what the hell are you doing' I shouted in a slight mockery "Outsiders, Pah, True blood ODST more like it, Shove off or I'll call in the rest of my platoon"

Without hesitation I rolled back to the first side of the tower and took up my Aias voice "Shut up, I'm not getting my people killed for your's Spacer"

Shaw's voice returned "So Aias, Giving up or not, last warning"

"We give up, Just give us a few minutes to get organized and we'll let you in," I said in Aias's voice before rolling back to 'my' position

"Better stay in your holes or I'll shoot you myself" I spoke in 'my' voice

"Spacer keep those lips sealed I have plenty of things in mind for you" Shaw's tone was hostile

I glanced back to the timer '9:46' _'not enough time to stall, they won't wait that long'_ , fearing they'd come to the door I took my spot in cover waiting for a shot, I saw many of the others on the wall do something similar, I clicked to our COM "Roux, what's the status on the Civ's"

"Almost cut a hole in the rear wall, just waiting for the signal and they'll be ready to run for it"

"I'll keep you posted," I said returning to my lookout position

Each passing second felt like a minute, each minute felt like a day, Knowing they wouldn't stay in that trench forever, even if we 'surrendered' they would be willing to attack to secure the things they want, around the two minute mark I could see activity in the trench, In the distant I could hear the whine of another drop-ship, it wasn't ours. the air started to feel tight as Shaw started shouting orders to his men but just as the timer ticked to one minute a loud burst of crackling static filled my headset

" _C2 This is Millennium we got the call from little red to give a care package, please confirm status"_

I responded to the call "C2 Active, Still in need of that care package ASAP Hostiles present"

" _Understood C2 reading you loud and clear, keep your eyes to the sky, care package inbound less than One"_

I looked to the sky, and without a doubt, a cluster of 10 glowing streaks were inbound one fairly larger than the rest, I was taken aback from the sight, it wasn't an airstrike, it was drop-pods- Reinforcements, we just had to hold on for a few more moments.

A battle cry emanated from the trench as troops poured from it, weapons lit up from both sides as we returned the war cry, and a vibrant white flare took to the sky.

The First Streak landed with a loud ruckus, the door was flung off taking out one of Shaw's men with a _clatter_ , A _Giant_ armoured form bound from the pod twin SMG's tearing into the enemy, the enemy line melted both in figurative terms and in morale they started to flee, their escape was cut off by 8 more pods, ODST poured from them, their weapons cut through the enemy at close range, leaving little resistance, The largest streak from before had been a pelican, it pulled off early to swing in alongside the 'fort' and came in for a landing

The pelican landed hard dropping its underslung Hog and it birthed a full load of Marines, they ducked into the enemy foxholes using them to great effect, In the distance A second Spirit was closing on us, it must have seen the chaos and peeled off, but a pair of rockets trailed after it and brought it down, it crashed close by, the pelican unloaded a half dozen missiles into it, leaving but a smouldering crater and unbelievably the timer then hit zero

Bewildered we stood there in silence as the ODST swept the bodies, cleanly clearing any leftovers, one of them even being tugged around a dishevel Shaw, who had been grievously marred and without medical aid would without a doubt die quickly.

The armoured Giant looked to the wall and it gave us a wave, but looked confused when the whole wall's worth of people didn't move, stunned by their entrance

A calm collected feminine voice entered our TEAMCOM "Hello? Did I fry you with the retro's on the way in?"

I Shook my head "A spartan, helluva reinforcement" my temperament was still one of surprise

"Well, Anything for Little red, and Jacks boy's" she responded

I unthinkingly responded, "you know Jack?"

"Yeah, saw him recently too, saved his ass back on Spiron" she quipped

I hastily climbed down from the tower and jogged over to the figure, Dmitri had already figured out who it was, as the others looked around to help wounded Civ's, I took off my helmet when I got close

Her face lit up "Your the Marine Jack was fawning over"

I was firmly taken aback "E-excuse me?"

"Jack said so many nice things about you, and insisted on getting you your lead boots"

"Fawning means flirting," I said mostly confused to which she laughed

"you should have seen your face, you looked so embarrassed"

"so you saved me... again, to mock me?"

"No silly, I'm here to rescue you on the orders of Little reds superiors"

"Roux doesn't like people calling her red," I said quietly

"We know that that's why we do it" she grabbed me into a side hug turning me to the battlefield "Good work holding them at bay, not many really would willingly sacrifice themselves for someone the just met, and were complete assholes to you minutes before"

"don't mention it... I've left people behind before... I wasn't going to let it happen this time"

She planted her large armoured glove on my shoulder "I know... we all have"

One of the ODST's walked up to her and I and paused, "Ma'am sector is clear"

"Good to hear" she responded cordially

The Trooper looked to me and took off his helm, instantly I recognized him, his voice was soft and apologetic "It's good to see you again"

Rebekah took a step back "I'll leave you two to it then"

"Jay, you seem less hostile today"

"Your friend gave me a good talking too, and I've been thinking about it since, we left on a sour note, that doesn't mean the rest of our lives have to be angry bickering and insults, so even if it doesn't matter, I'm sorry that I've let my anger pull us apart, its good to see your alive and still in the fight"

"Thanks, Its good to hear that time has made bigger men of the both of us... I have rations back inside and can split one with you if you want," I said turning and walking back towards the encampment, Jay followed in tow

* * *

 **Double threat Chapters!**  
 **I thought a second chapter would make up for the long wait between the previous two, and making this one action-packed to help keep the story's energy up given this is the first action based Chapter in... like 8 chapters, so I hope its a good read.**

 **I personally will likely be revitalizing/rewriting the Sargasso chronicle to refresh it up to standards with my current writing style and writing development since I started it... So when that's done I'll link it in the chapter for this that comes out after that's done**

 **Although I can't promise that I'll get a chapter out on a schedule, I am going to make a conscious effort to get a chapter out at least once per every other month in hopes to getting back in the swing of things and even get back into regular uploads**

 **What do you guys want to see, if you want to see something feel free to PM or list in a review the thing/s you'd like to see, and I'll mull over using your suggestions, and if I use them I'll credit you in the AN of the chapter they appear in.**

 **Please feel free to drop a review, favourite or follow, every one of these helps me develop the story knowing that people like what they are reading.**

 **As Always,**

 **Semper Fi**

 **LoyalODST aka William**


End file.
